What’s the right padding/margin balance for mobile?

You've crafted a beautiful email on your desktop. You send it out, and on mobile it looks cramped. Fingers hit the wrong buttons. Text feels squeezed. That's the padding problem.

Mobile screens are tiny compared to desktop. That means spacing rules change completely. What looks balanced on a 1200-pixel monitor feels claustrophobic on a 375-pixel phone. You need generous breathing room so content doesn't blur together and tappable elements sit far enough apart that people don't miss.

Here's your mobile spacing framework. Start with at least 16 to 20 pixels of padding on container edges. That creates a comfortable margin between your content and the screen edge. Make your buttons or links at least 44 by 44 pixels. That's the minimum size your thumb can reliably hit. Between sections, use 8 to 16 pixels of space depending on visual hierarchy. Line-height should sit between 1.4 and 1.6 for body text. This prevents text from feeling too tight vertically. On the first element in a container, drop the top margin to zero. That kills wasted white space at the top.

Mobile-first design means you're building for small screens first, then scaling up. Test your email on real phones and tablets to catch spacing problems before they hit inboxes. You'll see exactly where content breathes and where it chokes.