Question

When I set the width of an input and a text area to 94% they appear to be slightly different in width. This is something I have seen many times on many sites.

Can anyone explain why a textarea is not as wide as an input when set to the same % width?

input, textarea {
    width: 94%;
}

Answer 1

1. Don’t forget the box model includes borders, padding, and margins. They all affect the actual physical width of an element in the page.
2. Unless you use a CSS reset you’re at the mercy of the default browser stylesheets which set different borders, padding, and margins for each element.