how to delete extra space between buttons?

Question

please check out this code in jsfiddle

HTML:

<div id="main">
    <div id="menu">
        <a href="#" class="buttons">Home</a>
        <a href="#" class="buttons">About Us</a>
        <a href="#" class="buttons">Pictures</a>
        <a href="#" class="buttons">Contact Us</a>
    </div>
</div>

CSS:

#main
{
    width: 64em;
    height: 25em;
}

#menu

    {
        background-color: #00b875;
        height: 3em;
    }

    .buttons
    {
        text-decoration: none;
        color: #ffffff;
        line-height: 3em;
        display: inline-block;
        padding-left: 10px;
        padding-right: 10px;
        font-family: courier new;
        -moz-transition: 1s linear;
        -ms-transition: 1s linear;
        -o-transition: 1s linear;
        -webkit-transition: 1s linear;
        transition: 1s linear;
    }

    .buttons:hover
    {
        background-color: #0d96d6;
    }

when switching from one button to another very quickly, you'll notice that there is actually some gap in between two buttons. i want to get rid of this space. any ideas? if you do answer the question, please also explain why a certain property will fix this.

i know that it is tweakable using padding and margin, but the result is likely to get distorted upon zoom. please point out a stable way of solving the problem.

thanks

Answer 1

Try this(JSFiddle)

CSS

#main {

    height: 25em;
}

#menu {
    background-color: #00b875;
    height: 3em;
}

.buttons {
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #ffffff;
    line-height: 3em;
    display: inline-block;
    padding-left:5px;
    padding-right:5px;
    font-family: courier new;
    -moz-transition: 1s linear;
    -ms-transition: 1s linear;
    -o-transition: 1s linear;
    -webkit-transition: 1s linear;
    transition: 1s linear;
}

.buttons:hover {
    background-color: #0d96d6;
}

Answer 2

here is your solution

http://jsfiddle.net/NPqSr/7/

.buttons
{
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #ffffff;
    line-height: 3em;
    display: inline-block;
    padding-left: 10px;
    float:left;
    padding-right: 10px;
    font-family: courier new;
    -moz-transition: 1s linear;
    -ms-transition: 1s linear;
    -o-transition: 1s linear;
    -webkit-transition: 1s linear;
    transition: 1s linear;
}

Answer 3

Get rid of the spaces themselves: this may look messy but actually it's the cleanest thing you can do. Anything you achieve with CSS tricks is just putting the spaces there and then denying their existence. Instead, you might want to omit them; the only problem to solve is readability.

So let's make it readable:

<div id="main">
    <div id="menu">
        <!--
        --><a href="#" class="buttons">Home</a><!--
        --><a href="#" class="buttons">About Us</a><!--
        --><a href="#" class="buttons">Pictures</a><!--
        --><a href="#" class="buttons">Contact Us</a><!--
        -->
    </div>
</div>

Again, I know it seems weird, yes, but think about it. The real weirdo here is HTML itself, not giving you a clear way to do this. Consider it a special markup! It could as well be part of the HTML standard; technically, btw, it is 100% standard, you are free to use comments...