Using the :after CSS pseudo-element without inserting content

Question

Is it possible to use the :after CSS pseudo-element to offset alignment without actually inserting anything in content: "". It doesn't seem to render unless content is specified so just wondered whether this is possible or if there are any known workarounds.

As an example:-

.nav-primary li.level0 a:after {
    content: "";
    padding-right: 1px;
    margin-left: -1px;
}

As you can see from the example, simply changing the colour of the content would not work in this instance as would still consume space affecting the offset.

Answer 1

I ran into a similar situation which was fixed by adding display: block to the :before styles.