Divide and Ring Utilities in Tailwind CSS
Tailwind provides divide utilities for borders between child elements and ring utilities for focus outlines or decorative borders that sit outside the element's border.
1. Divide Utilities
Use divide-x, divide-y to create borders between child elements:
Item 1
Item 2
Item 3
Example: divide-x divide-gray-400
2. Ring Utilities
Rings are outer outlines used especially for focus states or decorative purposes:
You can use ring-{width}, ring-{color}, and ring-offset combinations.
3. Divide Reverse
Change the direction of dividing lines with divide-x-reverse or divide-y-reverse:
Left
Right
4. Best Practices
- Use divide utilities for flexbox/grid child separation without custom borders.
- Ring utilities work great for focus effects, especially with
:focuspseudo-classes. - Use
ring-offsetto maintain padding between ring and element.
Conclusion
With Tailwind’s divide and ring utilities, you can add visual separators and focus indicators quickly and consistently across your UI.