How do I add a margin to a CSS webkit scrollbar?

Question

Here's my site with the current webkit scrollbar: http://willwhitehead.com

I'd like to create a gap between the scrollbar and the right edge of the screen.

How do I achieve this?

Thanks in advance,

Will

Solution 1

There's yet another solution which might fit easily in everybody's project. If you use a transparent border as a margin and a box-shadow with inset to set it's color, you'd get the result you are hoping for.

For instance:

::-webkit-scrollbar {
    width: 10px;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
    box-shadow: inset 0 0 10px 10px green;
    border: solid 3px transparent;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
    box-shadow: inset 0 0 10px 10px red;
    border: solid 3px transparent;
}

This may be an ugly scrollbar, but it serves as an example to what I mean.

However, in Chrome, the transparent property won't work, so you would have to manually insert the color that would fit with the background, preferably, the background-color.

Solution 2

::-webkit-scrollbar {
  width: 14px;
}

/* 4px scroll thumb. 10px margin from right margin */
::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 14px 14px transparent;
  border: solid 4px transparent;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
  box-shadow: inset 0 0 14px 14px #bbbbbe;
  border: solid 4px transparent;
  border-radius: 14px;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-button {
  display: none;
}

codesandbox example - https://codesandbox.io/s/5vk9246qyk

webkit-scrollbar supported by 93.02% of total browsers at the time or writing https://www.caniuse.com/#search=webkit-scrollbar

Solution 3

This is a horrible hack but seems to work. Use the ::-webkit-scrollbar selector, give the bar a fixed with of x pixels. then set the left property to some -px value.

::-webkit-scrollbar {
    width: 10px; left:-100px;
}

Alternatively you could do the following:

Give the ::-webkit-scrollbar a fixed width of say 30px, then set the border of the ::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb to be the padding you wish to scroll bar to away from the right hand side of the screen. and set the background of border to match that of the background colour.

This will give the illusion that the scroll bar floating right of the window, though in actual fact it is not. You can see this in the fiddle below.

body {
  background: blue;
}
*::-webkit-scrollbar {
  width: 30px;
}
*::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
  background: green;
  /* change me to blue to match the background */
}
*::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
  background: red;
  border: 10px yellow solid;
  /* change border color to blue to match the background */
}

<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>

---

However, probably the best thing is to do is wrap all your content in a container div. Then modify the css for the container see:

body {
  background: blue;
  margin: 0 0 0 0;
  padding: 0 0 0 0;
}
#container {
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  overflow-y: scroll;
  right: 60px;
  height: 100%;
  background: gold;
  margin: 0 0 0 0;
  padding: 0 0 0 0;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar {
  width: 20px;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-track {
  background: red;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
  background: green;
}

<div id="container">
  <p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
    the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
  <p>
    <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
    The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
    and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
  <p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
    the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
  <p>
    <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
    The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
    and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
  <p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
    the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
  <p>
    <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
    The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
    and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
  <p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
    the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
  <p>
    <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
    The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
    and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
  <p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
    the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
  <p>
    <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
    The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
    and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
  <p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
    the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
  <p>
    <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
    The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
    and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
</div>

Solution 4

Another solution would be to make use of the background-clip property by using a transparent border and telling css to only fill the content green and not the border (possible through background-clip: content-box)

body {
  background: white;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar {
    width: 20px;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb {
    background: green;
    background-clip: content-box;
    border: 5px solid transparent;
}

<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>
<p>The idea of Rang De was sown in the year 2006 - the same year when Mr. Yunus was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work with Grameen Bank. The motivation for starting Rang De was the belief that the peer to peer lending model could be leveraged to lower
  the cost of microcredit and reach out to under-served communities. RangDe.Org went live on January 26th 2008 (16:48 hrs to be precise!).</p>
<p>
  <h5>The spirit of Rang De</h5>
  The name Rang De was decided after a lot of thought. It goes back to the patriotic struggle for Independence. We believe that a similar movement with the same kind of urgency is required to address poverty in India. The words Rang De also denote colour
  and exuberance and that is the significance we want our efforts to have for the people we reach out to.</p>

Solution 5

This is not your question, but in many cases it might just be simpler to add padding-right to your elements container, and not to the scrollbar.

View more solutions