Spacing is an important, and often underestimated, part of the visual design within Inspire. The Spacing serves to make all distances within the modules look the same. The different spacings allow for flexible arrangement within the system.

The distances are divided into two applications.
1. The "Spacing" can be used horizontally and vertically. It refers to padding, margin and space between the elements.
2. The "White Spacing" can also be used horizontally and vertically. It is used as a design element to create hierarchies with spacing, to create focus and to give the overall design a sense of calm. Within the "White Scale" no data may be visualized.



ScaleUsecase
Spacing Use the spacing scale when building individual components. It includes small increments needed to create appropriate spatial relationships for detail-level designs.
White SpacingUse the White Spacing when building the interface. Empty space — also known as white space — is important in design. It can be used to break up sections on a page or to help create focus on certain element(s). White space helps with information processing; too much dense information can be disorienting or overwhelming for a user.




Spacing and White Spacing

Spacing utilities without a breakpoint abbreviation (e.g. mx-1) will apply to all breakpoints. When you supply a breakpoint abbreviation to the spacing utility, that spacing will be applied from that breakpoint upward, e.g.: "mt-md-3" will apply a margin top of 0.5 rem (in our table 3 equals 0.5 rem) starting from the breakpoint "sm" towards "xxl".






Where property is one of:
m -for classes that set margin
p -for classes that set padding
Where sides is one of:
t -for classes that set margin-top or padding-top
b -for classes that set margin-bottom or padding-bottom
l -for classes that set margin-left or padding-left
r -for classes that set margin-right or padding-right
x - for classes that set both *-left and *-right
y -for classes that set both *-top and *-bottom
blank -for classes that set a margin or padding on all 4 sides of the element



Spacingrempx
$spacer * 000
$spacer * 10.1252
$spacer * 20.254
$spacer * 30.58
$spacer * 40.7512
$spacer * 5116
$spacer * 61.2520
$spacer * 71.524



White Spacingrempx
$ws * 1116
$ws * 21.2520
$ws * 31.524
$ws * 4232
$ws * 5348
$ws * 6464
$ws * 7580
$ws * 8696
$ws * 97112
$ws * 108128



Spacing and White Spacing Example
Here are some representative examples of these classes:


Other Spacing 
Additionally, Inspire also includes an .mx-auto class for horizontally centering fixed-width block level content—that is, content that has display: block and a width set by setting the horizontal margins to auto.





Using White Spacing with the grid (Copycat from IBM - Texter needed)

The Inspire grid is the encouraged way to horizontally space UI elements. The White Spacing is most commonly used for vertical spacing, but it can also be applied for horizontal spacing when appropriate, especially in the case of fixed spacing.


Designing with space (Copycat from IBM - Texter needed)

Every part of a UI should be intentional including the empty space between elements. The amount of space between items creates relationships and hierarchy.


Creating relationships (Copycat from IBM - Texter needed)

Elements in a design that are near each other are seen as being meaningfully related. As more space is added between elements, their perceived relationship weakens.

Patterns created through spacing can also create relationships. Elements arranged in the same spacing pattern are seen as related pieces that have equal weight.

Space can also be used to denote groups of associated information. This creates content sections on a page without having to use lines or other graphical elements as a divider.