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HTML Element

The HTML element defines subscript text. Subscript text appears half a character below the normal line, and is sometimes rendered in a smaller font. Subscript text can be used for chemical formulas, like H2O:

HTML Element

The HTML element defines superscript text. Superscript text appears half a character above the normal line, and is sometimes rendered in a smaller font. Superscript text can be used for footnotes, like WWW[1]:

HTML Exercises

HTML Text Formatting Elements

For a complete list of all available HTML tags, visit our HTML Tag Reference.

Contents

1. Formatting
   1. Background color
   2. Alignment
   3. Floating objects
      • Float an object
      • Float text around an object
2. Fonts
   1. Font style elements: the TT, I, B, BIG, SMALL, STRIKE, S, and U elements
   2. Font modifier elements: FONT and BASEFONT
3. Rules: the HR element

This section of the specification discusses some HTML elements and attributes that may be used for visual formatting of elements. Many of them are deprecated.

15.1 Formatting

15.1.1 Background color

Attribute definitions

This attribute sets the background color of the canvas for the document body [the BODY element] or for tables [the TABLE, TR, TH, and TD elements]. Additional attributes for specifying text color can be used with the BODY element.

This attribute has been deprecated in favor of style sheets for specifying background color information.

15.1.2 Alignment

It is possible to align block elements [tables, images, objects, paragraphs, etc.] on the canvas with the align attribute. Although this attribute may be set for many HTML elements, its range of possible values sometimes differs from element to element. Here we only discuss the meaning of the align attribute for text.

Attribute definitions

• left: text lines are rendered flush left.
• center: text lines are centered.
• right: text lines are rendered flush right.
• justify: text lines are justified to both margins.

The default depends on the base text direction. For left to right text, the default is align=left, while for right to left text, the default is align=right.

DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
This example centers a heading on the canvas.

 How to Carve Wood 

Using CSS, for example, you could achieve the same effect as follows:

 How to Carve Wood
 
  H1 { text-align: center}
 

 
 How to Carve Wood 

Note that this would center all H1 declarations. You could reduce the scope of the style by setting the class attribute on the element:

 How to Carve Wood
 
  H1.wood {text-align: center}
 

 
 How to Carve Wood 

DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
Similarly, to right align a paragraph on the canvas with HTML's align attribute you could have:

...Lots of paragraph text...

which, with CSS, would be:

 How to Carve Wood
 
  P.mypar {text-align: right}
 

 
...Lots of paragraph text...

DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
To right align a series of paragraphs, group them with the DIV element:

 
...text in first paragraph...
 
...text in second paragraph...
 
...text in third paragraph...

With CSS, the text-align property is inherited from the parent element, you can therefore use:

 How to Carve Wood
 
  DIV.mypars {text-align: right}
 

 

  
...text in first paragraph...
  
...text in second paragraph...
  
...text in third paragraph...
 

To center the entire document with CSS:

 How to Carve Wood
 
  BODY {text-align: center}
 

 ...the body is centered...

The CENTER element is exactly equivalent to specifying the DIV element with the align attribute set to "center". The CENTER element is deprecated.

15.1.3 Floating objects

Images and objects may appear directly "in-line" or may be floated to one side of the page, temporarily altering the margins of text that may flow on either side of the object.

Float an object 

The align attribute for objects, images, tables, frames, etc., causes the object to float to the left or right margin. Floating objects generally begin a new line. This attribute takes the following values:

• left: Floats the object to the current left margin. Subsequent text flows along the image's right side.
• right: Floats the object to the current right margin. Subsequent text flows along the image's left side.

DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
The following example shows how to float an IMG element to the current left margin of the canvas.

Some alignment attributes also permit the "center" value, which does not cause floating, but centers the object within the current margins. However, for P and DIV, the value "center" causes the contents of the element to be centered.

Float text around an object 

Another attribute, defined for the BR element, controls text flow around floating objects.

Attribute definitions

• none: The next line will begin normally. This is the default value.
• left: The next line will begin at nearest line below any floating objects on the left-hand margin.
• right: The next line will begin at nearest line below any floating objects on the right-hand margin.
• all: The next line will begin at nearest line below any floating objects on either margin.

Consider the following visual scenario, where text flows to the right of an image until a line is broken by a BR:

*********  -------
|       |  -------
| image |  --

|       |
*********

If the clear attribute is set to none, the line following BR will begin immediately below it at the right margin of the image:

*********  -------
|       |  -------
| image |  --

|       |  ------
*********

DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
If the clear attribute is set to left or all, the next line will appear as follows:

*********  -------
|       |  -------
| image |  --

|       |  
*********
-----------------

Using style sheets, you could specify that all line breaks should behave this way for objects [images, tables, etc.] floating against the left margin. With CSS, you could achieve this as follows:

BR { clear: left }

To specify this behavior for a specific instance of the BR element, you could combine style information and the id attribute:

...

BR#mybr { clear: left }



...
*********  -------
|       |  -------
| table |  --

|       |  
*********
-----------------
...

15.2 Fonts

The following HTML elements specify font information. Although they are not all deprecated, their use is discouraged in favor of style sheets.

15.2.1 Font style elements: the TT, I, B, BIG, SMALL, STRIKE, S, and U elements

Start tag: required, End tag: required

Attributes defined elsewhere

• id, class [document-wide identifiers]
• lang [language information], dir [text direction]
• title [element title]
• style [inline style information]
• title, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove, onmouseout, onkeypress, onkeydown onkeyup [intrinsic events]

Rendering of font style elements depends on the user agent. The following is an informative description only.

The following sentence shows several types of text:

bold,
italic, bold italic, teletype text, and
big and small text.

These words might be rendered as follows:

It is possible to achieve a much richer variety of font effects using style sheets. To specify blue, italic text in a paragraph with CSS:

P#mypar {font-style: italic; color: blue}


...Lots of blue italic text...

Font style elements must be properly nested. Rendering of nested font style elements depends on the user agent.

15.2.2 Font modifier elements: FONT and BASEFONT

FONT and BASEFONT are deprecated.

See the Transitional DTD for the formal definition.

Attribute definitions

• An integer between 1 and 7. This sets the font to some fixed size, whose rendering depends on the user agent. Not all user agents may render all seven sizes.
• A relative increase in font size. The value "+1" means one size larger. The value "-3" means three sizes smaller. All sizes belong to the scale of 1 to 7.

The FONT element changes the font size and color for text in its contents.

The BASEFONT element sets the base font size [using the size attribute]. Font size changes achieved with FONT are relative to the base font size set by BASEFONT. If BASEFONT is not used, the default base font size is 3.

DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
The following example will show the difference between the seven font sizes available with FONT:

size=1
size=2
size=3
size=4
size=5
size=6
size=7

This might be rendered as:

The following shows an example of the effect of relative font sizes using a base font size of 3:

The base font size does not apply to headings, except where these are modified using the FONT element with a relative font size change.

15.3 Rules: the HR element

Start tag: required, End tag: forbidden

Attribute definitions

• left: the rule is rendered flush left.
• center: the rule is centered.
• right: the rule is rendered flush right.

The default is align=center.

Attributes defined elsewhere

• id, class [document-wide identifiers]
• lang [language information], dir [text direction]
• title [element title]
• style [inline style information]
• title, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove, onmouseout, onkeypress, onkeydown, onkeyup [intrinsic events]

The HR element causes a horizontal rule to be rendered by visual user agents.

The amount of vertical space inserted between a rule and the content that surrounds it depends on the user agent.

DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
This example centers the rules, sizing them to half the available width between the margins. The top rule has the default thickness while the bottom two are set to 5 pixels. The bottom rule should be rendered in a solid color without shading:

These rules might be rendered as follows:

What are the text styles?

What is a text style and fonts?

What is text formatting?

Which of the following is not an option for formatting text?