Padding class

A widget that insets its child by the given padding.

When passing layout constraints to its child, padding shrinks the constraints by the given padding, causing the child to layout at a smaller size. Padding then sizes itself to its child's size, inflated by the padding, effectively creating empty space around the child.

const Card(
  child: Padding(
    padding: EdgeInsets.all(16.0),
    child: Text('Hello World!'),
  ),
)

Design discussion

Why use a Padding widget rather than a Container with a Container.padding property?

There isn't really any difference between the two. If you supply a Container.padding argument, Container builds a Padding widget for you.

Container doesn't implement its properties directly. Instead, Container combines a number of simpler widgets together into a convenient package. For example, the Container.padding property causes the container to build a Padding widget and the Container.decoration property causes the container to build a DecoratedBox widget. If you find Container convenient, feel free to use it. If not, feel free to build these simpler widgets in whatever combination meets your needs.

In fact, the majority of widgets in Flutter are combinations of other simpler widgets. Composition, rather than inheritance, is the primary mechanism for building up widgets.

See also:

• EdgeInsets, the class that is used to describe the padding dimensions.
• AnimatedPadding, which animates changes in padding over a given duration.
• SliverPadding, the sliver equivalent of this widget.
• The catalog of layout widgets.