---
id: css-text-spacing
title: "CSS Text Spacing"
category: "Frontend"
status: "draft"
verification_status: "conceptual"
canonical_id: ""
aliases: ["text spacing", "text-indent", "letter-spacing", "line-height", "word-spacing", "white-space"]
duplicate_of: ""
source_trust_level: "B"
confidence_score: 0.88
created_at: 2026-06-23
updated_at: 2026-06-23
review_reason: ""
merge_history: []
tags: ["css", "web", "frontend", "w3schools", "text", "spacing"]
raw_sources: ["https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_text_spacing.asp"]
applied_in: []
github_commit: ""
---

# [[CSS Text Spacing]]

## 🎯 한 줄 통찰 (One-line insight)
CSS provides five text-spacing properties — `text-indent`, `letter-spacing`, `line-height`, `word-spacing`, and `white-space` — to control indentation, character/word/line spacing, and whitespace handling. [S1]

## 🧠 핵심 개념 (Core concepts)
- **`text-indent`** — specifies the indentation of the first line in a text-block; negative values are permitted for leftward indentation. [S1]
- **`letter-spacing`** — specifies the space between the characters in a text; negative values are allowed. [S1]
- **`line-height`** — specifies the space between lines; negative values are not permitted. [S1]
- **`word-spacing`** — specifies the space between the words in a text; negative values are allowed. [S1]
- **`white-space`** — specifies how whitespace inside an element is handled; values include `normal`, `nowrap`, `pre`, `pre-line`, and `pre-wrap`. [S1]

## 🧩 추출된 패턴 (Extracted patterns)
- **First-line indent pattern** — `text-indent: <length>;` to indent the opening line of a block. [S1]
- **Character/word tracking pattern** — adjust `letter-spacing` and `word-spacing` (including negative values) to tighten or loosen spacing. [S1]
- **Line density pattern** — use unitless `line-height` (e.g., `0.8` vs `1.8`) for tighter or looser line spacing. [S1]
- **No-wrap pattern** — `white-space: nowrap;` to prevent text from wrapping. [S1]

## 📖 세부 내용 (Details)
The page discusses five CSS properties for controlling text spacing: `text-indent`, `letter-spacing`, `line-height`, `word-spacing`, and `white-space`. [S1]

**Text Indentation** — "The CSS `text-indent` property is used to specify the indentation of the first line in a text-block." Negative values are permitted for leftward indentation. [S1]
```css
p {
  text-indent: 50px;
}
```

**Letter Spacing** — "The CSS `letter-spacing` property is used to specify the space between the characters in a text." Negative values are allowed. [S1]
```css
h1 {
  letter-spacing: 5px;
}

h2 {
  letter-spacing: -2px;
}
```

**Line Height** — "The CSS `line-height` property is used to specify the space between lines." Negative values are not permitted. [S1]
```css
p.small {
  line-height: 0.8;
}

p.big {
  line-height: 1.8;
}
```

**Word Spacing** — "The CSS `word-spacing` property is used to specify the space between the words in a text." Negative values are allowed. [S1]
```css
p.one {
  word-spacing: 10px;
}

p.two {
  word-spacing: -2px;
}
```

**White Space** — "The CSS `white-space` property specifies how white-space inside an element is handled." This property can accept values including `normal`, `nowrap`, `pre`, `pre-line`, and `pre-wrap`. [S1]
```css
p {
  white-space: nowrap;
}
```

A summary table on the page lists each property with its description, linking to detailed CSS reference documentation for each spacing attribute. [S1]

## 🛠️ 적용 사례 (Applied in summary)
The page's own examples are the applied cases: first-line indentation, positive/negative letter spacing, tight vs loose line height, positive/negative word spacing, and a no-wrap whitespace rule. No external project/commit applications found in the source.

## 💻 코드 패턴 (Code patterns)
Spacing properties (language: CSS):
```css
selector {
  text-indent: <length>;
  letter-spacing: <length>;
  line-height: <number | length>;
  word-spacing: <length>;
  white-space: normal | nowrap | pre | pre-line | pre-wrap;
}
```
Concrete example:
```css
p.big {
  line-height: 1.8;
}
```

## ⚖️ 모순 및 업데이트 (Contradictions & updates)
No contradictions found in the source.

## ✅ 검증 상태 및 신뢰도
- **상태:** draft
- **검증 단계:** conceptual (실제 적용 사례 발견 시 applied/validated로 승격 가능)
- **출처 신뢰도:** B (W3Schools — widely used educational reference, not a primary standards body)
- **신뢰 점수:** 0.88
- **중복 검사 결과:** 신규 생성 (New discovery)

## 🔗 지식 그래프 (Knowledge Graph)
- **상위/루트:** [[CSS Tutorial]]
- **관련 개념:** [[CSS Text Transformation]], [[CSS Text Alignment]], [[CSS Text Decoration]]
- **참조 맥락:** Referenced when tuning the spacing and whitespace handling of textual content.

## 📚 출처 (Sources)
- [S1] W3Schools — CSS Text Spacing — https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_text_spacing.asp

## 📝 변경 이력 (Change history)
- 2026-06-23: Initial draft synthesized from the W3Schools "CSS Text Spacing" page (Astra wiki-curation, P-Reinforce v3.1 format).