HTML Text Formatting

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HTML contains several elements for defining text with a special meaning.

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Example

This text is bold

This text is italic

This is subscript and superscript

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HTML Formatting Elements

Formatting elements were designed to display special types of text:

• <b> - Bold text
• <strong> - Important text
• <i> - Italic text
• <em> - Emphasized text
• <mark> - Marked text
• <small> - Smaller text
• <del> - Deleted text
• <ins> - Inserted text
• <sub> - Subscript text
• <sup> - Superscript text

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HTML <b> and <strong> Elements

The HTML <b> element defines bold text, without any extra importance.

Example

<b>This text is bold</b>

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The HTML <strong> element defines text with strong importance. The content inside is typically displayed in bold.

Example

<strong>This text is important!</strong>

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HTML <i> and <em> Elements

The HTML <i> element defines a part of text in an alternate voice or mood. The content inside is typically displayed in italic.

Tip: The <i> tag is often used to indicate a technical term, a phrase from another language, a thought, a ship name, etc.

Example

<i>This text is italic</i>

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The HTML <em> element defines emphasized text. The content inside is typically displayed in italic.

Tip: A screen reader will pronounce the words in <em> with an emphasis, using verbal stress.

Example

<em>This text is emphasized</em>

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HTML <small> Element

The HTML <small> element defines smaller text:

Example

<small>This is some smaller text.</small>

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HTML <mark> Element

The HTML <mark> element defines text that should be marked or highlighted:

Example

<p>Do not forget to buy <mark>milk</mark> today.</p>

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HTML <del> Element

The HTML <del> element defines text that has been deleted from a document. Browsers will usually strike a line through deleted text:

Example

<p>My favorite color is <del>blue</del> red.</p>

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HTML <ins> Element

The HTML <ins> element defines a text that has been inserted into a document. Browsers will usually underline inserted text:

Example

<p>My favorite color is <del>blue</del> <ins>red</ins>.</p>

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HTML <sub> Element

The HTML <sub> 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:

Example

<p>This is _subscripted text.</p>

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HTML <sup> Element

The HTML <sup> 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]:

Example

<p>This is ^{superscripted} text.</p>

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HTML Exercises

Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Add extra importance to the word "degradation" in the paragraph below.

<p>
WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of our planet's natural environment.
</p>

Start the Exercise

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HTML Text Formatting Elements

Tag	Description
<b>	Defines bold text
<em>	Defines emphasized text
<i>	Defines a part of text in an alternate voice or mood
<small>	Defines smaller text
<strong>	Defines important text
<sub>	Defines subscripted text
<sup>	Defines superscripted text
<ins>	Defines inserted text
<del>	Defines deleted text
<mark>	Defines marked/highlighted text

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

 

HTML Styles

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The HTML style attribute is used to add styles to an element, such as color, font, size, and more.

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Example

I am Red

I am Blue

I am Big

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The HTML Style Attribute

Setting the style of an HTML element, can be done with the style attribute.

The HTML style attribute has the following syntax:

<tagname style="property:value;">

The property is a CSS property. The value is a CSS value.

You will learn more about CSS later in this tutorial.

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Background Color

The CSS background-color property defines the background color for an HTML element.

Example

Set the background color for a page to powderblue:

<body style="background-color:powderblue;">

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>

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Example

Set background color for two different elements:

<body>

<h1 style="background-color:powderblue;">This is a heading</h1>
<p style="background-color:tomato;">This is a paragraph.</p>

</body>

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Text Color

The CSS color property defines the text color for an HTML element:

Example

<h1 style="color:blue;">This is a heading</h1>
<p style="color:red;">This is a paragraph.</p>

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Fonts

The CSS font-family property defines the font to be used for an HTML element:

Example

<h1 style="font-family:verdana;">This is a heading</h1>
<p style="font-family:courier;">This is a paragraph.</p>

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Text Size

The CSS font-size property defines the text size for an HTML element:

Example

<h1 style="font-size:300%;">This is a heading</h1>
<p style="font-size:160%;">This is a paragraph.</p>

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Text Alignment

The CSS text-align property defines the horizontal text alignment for an HTML element:

Example

<h1 style="text-align:center;">Centered Heading</h1>
<p style="text-align:center;">Centered paragraph.</p>

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Chapter Summary

• Use the style attribute for styling HTML elements
• Use background-color for background color
• Use color for text colors
• Use font-family for text fonts
• Use font-size for text sizes
• Use text-align for text alignment

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HTML Exercises

Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Use the correct HTML attribute, and CSS, to set the color of the paragraph to "blue".

<p =";">This is a paragraph.</p>

Start the Exercise

 

HTML Paragraphs

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A paragraph always starts on a new line, and is usually a block of text.

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HTML Paragraphs

The HTML <p> element defines a paragraph.

A paragraph always starts on a new line, and browsers automatically add some white space (a margin) before and after a paragraph.

Example

<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>

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HTML Display

You cannot be sure how HTML will be displayed.

Large or small screens, and resized windows will create different results.

With HTML, you cannot change the display by adding extra spaces or extra lines in your HTML code.

The browser will automatically remove any extra spaces and lines when the page is displayed:

Example

<p>
This paragraph
contains a lot of lines
in the source code,
but the browser
ignores it.
</p>

<p>
This paragraph
contains         a lot of spaces
in the source         code,
but the        browser
ignores it.
</p>

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HTML Horizontal Rules

The <hr> tag defines a thematic break in an HTML page, and is most often displayed as a horizontal rule.

The <hr> element is used to separate content (or define a change) in an HTML page:

Example

<h1>This is heading 1</h1>
<p>This is some text.</p>
<hr>
<h2>This is heading 2</h2>
<p>This is some other text.</p>
<hr>

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The <hr> tag is an empty tag, which means that it has no end tag.

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HTML Line Breaks

The HTML <br> element defines a line break.

Use <br> if you want a line break (a new line) without starting a new paragraph:

Example

<p>This is<br>a paragraph<br>with line breaks.</p>

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The <br> tag is an empty tag, which means that it has no end tag.

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The Poem Problem

This poem will display on a single line:

Example

<p>
  My Bonnie lies over the ocean.

  My Bonnie lies over the sea.

  My Bonnie lies over the ocean.

  Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me.
</p>

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Solution - The HTML <pre> Element

The HTML <pre> element defines preformatted text.

The text inside a <pre> element is displayed in a fixed-width font (usually Courier), and it preserves both spaces and line breaks:

Example

<pre>
  My Bonnie lies over the ocean.

  My Bonnie lies over the sea.

  My Bonnie lies over the ocean.

  Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me.
</pre>

Try it Yourself »

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HTML Exercises

Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Use the correct HTML tag to add a paragraph with the text "Hello World!".

<html>
<body>

</body>
</html>

Start the Exercise

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HTML Tag Reference

W3Schools' tag reference contains additional information about HTML elements and their attributes.

Tag	Description
<p>	Defines a paragraph
<hr>	Defines a thematic change in the content
<br>	Inserts a single line break
<pre>	Defines pre-formatted text

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