CSS: Control space between bullet and <li>

I'd like to control how much horizontal space a bullet pushes its <li> to the right in an <ol> or <ul>.

That is, instead of always having

*  Some list text goes
   here.

I'd like to be able to change that to be

*         Some list text goes
          here.

*Some list text goes
 here.

I looked around but could only find instructions for shifting the entire block left or right, for example, http://www.alistapart.com/articles/taminglists/

Put its content in a span which is relatively positioned, then you can control the space by the left property of the span.

li span {
  position: relative;
  left: -10px;
}

<ul>
  <li><span>item 1</span></li>
  <li><span>item 2</span></li>
  <li><span>item 3</span></li>
</ul>

To summarise the other answers here – if you want finer control over the space between bullets and the text in a <li> list item, your options are:

(1) Use a background image:

<style type="text/css">
li {
    list-style-type:none;
    background-image:url(bullet.png);
}
</style>

<ul>
    <li>Some text</li>
</ul>

Advantages:

You can use any image you want for the bullet
You can use CSS background-position to position the image pretty much anywhere you want in relation to the text, using pixels, ems or %

Disadvantages:

Adds an extra (albeit small) image file to your page, increasing the page weight
If a user increases the text size on their browser, the bullet will stay at the original size. It'll also likely get further out of position as the text size increases
If you're developing a 'responsive' layout using only percentages for widths, it could be difficult to get the bullet exactly where you want it over a range of screen widths

2. Use padding on the <li> tag

<style type="text/css">
ul {padding-left:1em}
li {padding-left:1em}
</style>

<ul>
    <li>Some text</li>
</ul>

Advantages:

No image = 1 less file to download
By adjusting the padding on the <li>, you can add as much extra horizontal space between the bullet and the text as you like
If the user increases the text size, the spacing and bullet size should scale proportionally

Disadvantages:

Can't move the bullet any closer to the text than the browser default
Limited to shapes and sizes of CSS's built-in bullet types
Bullet must be same colour as the text
No control over vertical positioning of the bullet

(3) Wrap the text in an extra <span> element

<style type="text/css">
li {
    padding-left:1em;
    color:#f00; /* red bullet */
}
li span {
    display:block;
    margin-left:-0.5em;
    color:#000; /* black text */
}
</style>

<ul>
    <li><span>Some text</span></li>
</ul>

Advantages:

No image = 1 less file to download
You get more control over the position of the bullet than with option (2) – you can move it closer to the text (although despite my best efforts it seems you can't alter the vertical position by adding padding-top to the <span>. Someone else may have a workaround for this, though...)
The bullet can be a different colour to the text
If the user increases their text size, the bullet should scale in proportion (providing you set the padding & margin in ems not px)

Disadvantages:

Requires an extra unsemantic element (this will probably lose you more friends on SO than it will in real life ;) but it's annoying for those who like their code to be as lean and efficient as possible, and it violates the separation of presentation and content that HTML / CSS is supposed to offer)
No control over the size and shape of the bullet

Here's hoping for some new list-style features in CSS4, so we can create smarter bullets without resorting to images or exta mark-up :)

This should do it. Be sure to set your bullets to the outside. you can also use CSS pseudo elements if you can drop them in IE7 downward. I don't really recommend using pseudo elements for this kinda thing but it does work to control distance.

ul {
  list-style: circle outside;
  width: 100px;
}

li {
  padding-left: 40px;
}

.pseudo,
.pseudo ul {
  list-style: none;
}

.pseudo li {
  position: relative;
}

/* use ISO 10646 for content http://la.remifa.so/unicode/named-entities.html */
.pseudo li:before {
  content: '\2192';
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
}

<ul>
  <li>Any Browser really</li>
  <li>List item
    <ul>
      <li>List item</li>
      <li>List item</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

<ul class="pseudo">
  <li>IE8+ only</li>
  <li>List item
    <ul>
      <li>List item with two lines of text for the example.</li>
      <li>List item</li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

Old question, but the :before pseudo element works well here.

<style>
    li:before {
        content: "";
        display: inline-block;
        height: 1rem;  // or px or em or whatever
        width: .5rem;  // or whatever space you want
    }
</style>

It works really well and doesn't require many extra rules or html.

<ul>
    <li>Some content</li>
    <li>Some other content</li>
</ul>

Cheers!

For list-style-type: inline:

It's almost the same like DSMann8's answer but less css code.

You just need to

<style>
    li:before {
        content: "";
        padding-left: 10px;
    }
</style>

<ul>
    <li>Some content</li>
</ul>

Cheers

CSS: Control space between bullet and <li>

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