Foundations

Spacing

Whitespace is referred to as negative space or empty space in a page. For the key freelancer interface we prefer a compact UI - this means keeping our usage of whitespace tight where we can do improve the information density of our pages. For instances like marketing pages we use larger spacing tokens to add more breathing room and create a greater impact with our brand storytelling.

Our spacing scales are defined in two categories:

1. Component Spacing Scale

- This scale contains spacing tokens in the range from 4px - 48px.

- Use this scale to build individual elements and components.

- It includes tokens needed to create appropriate spacial relationships for detail-level designs.

2. Layout Spacing Scale

- This scale contains spacing tokens in the range from 16px - 96px.

- Use this scale to arrange components and other UI parts into a pull page layout.

- This scale contains larger increments that are used to control the density of a design.

- Use the smaller layout tokens (16px - 48px) to create more dense components and direct relationships.

- Use the larger tokens (64px - 96px) to increase the amount of white space and to disassociate sections.

Some common use-cases for spacing tokens:

Enum	Value	Common use-case
Enum NONE	Value 0	Common use-case Mainly for removing margins from smaller screens
Enum XXXSMALL	Value 4px	Common use-case Used for compact spacing in between text components
Enum XXSMALL	Value 8px	Common use-case Spacing buttons and text
Enum XSMALL	Value 12px	Common use-case When 16px may feel too large
Enum SMALL	Value 16px	Common use-case Margins in small modules such as tooltips, margins in showcase cards, user cards and text
Enum MID	Value 24px	Common use-case Margins in card elements and as margin from the left/right/top/bottom border of the card
Enum LARGE	Value 32px	Common use-case Margins in modals and big cards that require more white space around the content
Enum XLARGE	Value 48px	Common use-case Margins in modals and big cards that require more white space around the content
Enum XXLARGE	Value 64px	Common use-case Extremely large cards for margins such as full view of entries on contest and showcase
Enum XXXLARGE	Value 72px	Common use-case Used to separate sections on landing pages
Enum XXXXLARGE	Value 96px	Common use-case Used to separate sections on landing pages and section heroes

NOTE: Spacing is measured as the distance from element to element. In CSS it might not be exactly the same numbers as in design software. I.e. Text by default have a small margin at the bottom in HTML/CSS which is added to this measurement. In design software the spacing measurements often begin at the text baseline.

Usage

Any component supports a mobile first responsive spacing inputs. Supported margin values are defined by the Margin enum found in @freelancer/ui/margin/margin.directive.ts.

Component

Here's how it works:

Give the example above, the margin of the first element is XXXSMALL by default. From tablet and up, the margin changes to LARGE then changes to XXXXLARGE from desktop and up.

Breakpoints:

[flMarginRightTablet] / [flMarginBottomTablet]: 768px;

[flMarginRightDesktop] / [flMarginBottomDesktop]: 960px;

Other Examples

Component

For the example above, we're utilising the [flMarginBottom] inputs where we'll have a MID margin on mobile then we remove the margin on tablet and add a XXXLARGE margin from desktop and up.

Component

On the example above, we're only setting a SMALL right margin only for tablet and up which means that there is no margin for screens that are smaller than tablets.