style="width: ___" vs width="___"
Written byPhuoc Nguyen
Created
02 Jul, 2020
Last updated
22 Jul, 2022
Category
CSS
There are two ways to define the dimension for an element:
- Using the
`height`
or`width`
attributes:
html
<img height="100" />
- Or using the
`height`
or`width`
property in CSS styles:
html
<img style="height: 100px" />
#Differences
-
The
`width`
and`height`
properties are available for all HTML elements. But the`width`
and`height`
attributes are only available for some elements such as`canvas`
,`image`
,`table`
,`td`
, etc.html<!-- Work --><img width="200px" /><!-- Does NOT work --><div width="200px"></div> -
For
`canvas`
elements, they don't produce the same result.According to the HTML specifications, if the`width`
and`height`
attributes are missing then the default value will be used.The`width`
attribute defaults to 300, and the`height`
attribute defaults to 150.It's recommended to set the`height`
and`width`
attributes for canvas directly or via JavaScript to avoid the problem that the canvas is stretched.html<!-- Work --><canvas height="100" width="100"></canvas><!-- Does NOT work --><canvas style="height: 100px; width: 100px;"></canvas>The`width`
and`height`
attributes of canvas must be positive numbers without the units.`width="100px"`
will have no affect despite the fact that it seems to be a valid attribute declaration for other elements. -
The CSS style properties have the higher priority than the HTML properties.In the following example, the
`height: 200px`
property will override the`height="100px"`
attribute:html<!-- The image will have the width of 200px --><img height="100px" style="height: 200px" />
#Good to know
The
`width`
and `height`
attributes are still used widely in emails where we have to support multiple screen sizes (mobile, desktop) and various email clients.Questions? 🙋
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Phước Nguyễn