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Foundation

Spacing units

Formation’s spacing units are based on multiples of 8 to maintain a consistent rhythm when applied to margins, padding, and other dimensions.

Why multiples of 8?

The number 8 is easily broken down into smaller measurements before it approaches sub-pixel units. Additionally, many popular screen sizes are also divisible by 8.

Spacing unit tokens

Token Pixels Rems Example
0 0px 0rem
1px 1px .1rem
0.25 2px .2rem
0.5 4px .4rem
1 8px .8rem
1.5 12px 1.2rem
2 16px 1.6rem
2.5 20px 2rem
3 24px 2.4rem
4 32px 3.2rem
5 40px 4rem
6 48px 4.8rem
7 56px 5.6rem
8 64px 6.4rem
9 72px 7.2rem
10 80px 8rem
15 120px 12rem
-1px -1px -.1rem
-0.25 -2px -.2rem
-0.5 -4px -.4rem
-1 -8px -.8rem
-1.5 -12px -1.2rem
-2 -16px -1.6rem
-2.5 -20px -2rem
-3 -24px -2.4rem
-4 -32px -3.2rem
-5 -40px -4rem
-6 -48px -4.8rem
-7 -56px -5.6rem
-8 -64px -6.4rem
-9 -72px -7.2rem
-10 -80px -8rem
-15 -120px -12rem

Using the spacing tokens

In order to keep spacing consistent throughout VA.gov, it is recommended you favor using the units functions instead of hard coding pixels (or relative units) for margins and padding.

In order to access the spacing tokens in your project, you will need to import Formation’s base files into your project files. Here is how this site is doing that.

There are two ways of using the spacing tokens in your code.

Output CSS as REM units

.foo {
  margin: units(5);
  padding: units(2.5);  
}

will compile to:

.foo {
  margin: 4rem;
  padding: 2rem;
}

Output CSS as PX units

.foo {
  margin: units-px(5);
  padding: units-px(2.5);  
}

will compile to:

.foo {
  margin: 40px;
  padding: 20px;
}
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Last updated: Jul 02, 2022