What is HTML's <a></a> tag default display type?

Question

I haven't been able to find anything that says what the default display is equivalent to in CSS's display properties. I ask, because whenever I attempt to add padding or margin to an <a> tag, it doesn't add it, I have to add the display property of inline-block for it to.

I don't know if this is browser specific or not, but would the default display of it be inline versus say inline-block (I obviously know it's not inline-block.

Answer 1

It is always display: inline by default. Horizontal margins, and padding on all sides should work without having to change its display property.

This remains true even in HTML5. If you are applying styles to an <a> element that contains flow elements or any other elements that are represented in CSS as display: block, you should set the <a> itself to a proper block container type such as block or inline-block for its layout to work as intended.