CSS command instead of remove spacing between paragraphs

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Do you use padding so it doesn't collapse? I use margin-bottom: 0.1em; specifically because I want it to collapse if the next paragraph happens to have a larger top margin (like after a section break).

If I remember the reason I went with padding years back, it was a trade off between not collapsing before a scene break which already tend to have spacing which hides the padding and the occasional bottom of the page having a line moved to the next page. I haven't looked at that code in close to a decade according to my last comments in the commented version of my basic stylesheet.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Do you use padding so it doesn't collapse? I use margin-bottom: 0.1em; specifically because I want it to collapse if the next paragraph happens to have a larger top margin (like after a section break).

When I used to use space followed by a non-indented paragraph I used a bottom-margin. But the space can get lost if it's at the bottom of the page. So I switched to a padding-bottom and it kept the space so the space could wrap to the next page.

Now I use a 20% 2px line with space above and below for a section break because it looks better and uses less space.

I also use just <p> for most paragraphs as I don't need a class there. Here is the code I use for a section break.

CSS:

hr {
  margin-top: 0.9em;
  margin-right: 40%;
  margin-bottom: 0.9em;
  margin-left: 40%;
  border-top: 2px solid;
}
hr + p, p.nonindent {
  text-indent: 0;
}

Here is the HTML code for the section break.

HTML:

<hr/>
<p>

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by DNSB

If I remember the reason I went with padding years back, it was a trade off between not collapsing before a scene break which already tend to have spacing which hides the padding and the occasional bottom of the page having a line moved to the next page.

I think a margin-bottom at the bottom of a screen is supposed to collapse, so it shouldn't move that line to the next screen, even though without the collapse the box would be large enough to not fit on the screen.

That said, who knows what rules are being used by various reading software. Years ago, the Onyx Boox didn't collapse margins at all, so the space was the sum of the two margins.

[Quoth]

margin-top collapses to zero on first element of a page with many ereaders/apps, but padding-top doesn't.

I'd expect margin bottom on a last element of a page ought to also collapse to zero on same systems, but I've not checked. That would make sense.

[JSWolf]

But then there are lots of lousy programs for reading eBooks. So I would expect some of them not to collapse a bottom margin at the bottom of the page.

[theducks]

I use Padding because some readers ignore YOUR margin for theirs.

Sadly, there are just too many reading aps that don't behave the same. I pity the book wranglers that have to deal with all the fallout from unhappy customers because of this crud.