Anyway of giving a border/padding between images and text without hspace/vspace?

Hello,

I have noticed tons of sites have images being displayed in their blogging posts where they are well seperated from the text. What I mean is, when I align an image to the left or the right, the text will often get “too close” to the image and would look unprofessional.

Have any of you found a good fix for this? I know there must be other methods of implementing this other than adding vspace or hspace to the image. I have seen sites that have an image aligned left or right and the text is a good 5-10 pixels away from the image, doing a similar job to what vspace or hspace would provide.

Problem with vspace and space is that it is a universal adjustment to all sides either horizontally and/or vertically.

I am seeking a solution that can give some form of padding to an image or something only on one side so it can be well spaced away from the text. What have you guys done to achieve this affect?