why the spacing problems?

css / html question

[honestbleeps]

First: I know all the cool kids are anti-tables these days. I have my reasons for this being done with tables (mostly to do with the fact that this code will be dynamically generated).

So here's my problem: My table corners (18x18 boxes with rounder corner images) get expanded too large once there's a lot of text in the box, screwing up my image.

Also: Suggestions for doing the rounder corner images better are welcome. It's really easy to make a solid color look good, but the black border added to it kind of looks fuzzy...

[edited by: encyclo at 1:02 pm (utc) on July 8, 2006]
[edit reason] no personal URLs please, see forum charter [/edit]

[honestbleeps]

Of course right after posting this I figured out the problem... sorry for hte waste of space. I do have another question though:

Is there a way to stop IE from creating extra whitespace when you add a border-left: style element to a table cell?

Ex: table is 18 pixels wide, but by putting border-left: 2px solid #000000 in it, it throws off the alignment adjacent cells to the right by adding in 2 pixels of whitespace. I tried border-spacing: 0px .. no help.