VCF

Unit 3 · CSS: the look and the layout

Why border: 5px shows no border in CSS

A border needs a style, such as solid, dashed or dotted. Without one the style is none, so nothing is drawn however wide you make it. Write border: 5px solid.

The mix-up

What people often think

“border: 5px is enough to draw a border.”

What the tutor says

A border needs a style as well as a width, or it is not drawn at all. Write border: 5px solid, and add a colour if you like.

What would a 5px border look like if nobody said whether it was solid, dashed or dotted?

How it works

The border shorthand takes up to three parts: width, style and colour. Width and colour have sensible defaults; style defaults to none, which means no border at all.

If you leave out the colour, the border uses the element’s text colour.

Side by side

The mix-upCSS
.card { border: 5px; }
No style, so no border.
What worksCSS
.card { border: 5px solid #5145f5; }
Width, style, colour.

Practise it with a tutor watching

The box model

Predict exactly how much space a box takes, and size it with padding, border and margin.

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