Flutter padding for all widgets?

Question

I'm trying to add some padding to the top and bottom of some text and icons in a Card widget. I found that flutter has an easy way to do this for containers, but can't seem to find a way to do this with other widgets (except for wrapping them in a container). This is the code I've got so far:

  body: new Container(     padding: new EdgeInsets.all(10.0),     child: new Column(       crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.stretch,       children: <Widget> [         new Card(           color: Colors.white70,           child: new Container(             padding: new EdgeInsets.all(10.0),             child: new Column(               mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.spaceBetween,               crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.center,               children: <Widget> [ //Padding between these please                 new Text("I love Flutter", style: new TextStyle(fontSize: 20.0, fontWeight: FontWeight.bold)),                 new Icon(Icons.favorite, color: Colors.redAccent, size: 50.0)               ]             )           )         )       ]     )   ) 

So in my children of column, I'd like to add some padding to the top and bottom without having to insert a new Container. Is this possible?

Answer 1

You can use Padding, which is a very simple Widget that just takes another Widget as a child and an EdgeInsets object like the one you are already using as padding.

This approach of "composition over inheritance" in Flutter is very intentional. You can find a recent discussion of the pros and cons on Flutter's Gitter channel.

Answer 2

Here is a supplemental answer that provides some code. As the accepted answer states, you can use the Padding widget. Flutter is different than Android or iOS because Padding is a widget rather than a property. (It is a property of Container, but internally it is still a widget.)

This is a Text widget wrapped with a Padding widget.

Padding(   padding: const EdgeInsets.all(8.0),   child: Text("text"), ); 

See my fuller answer here.