Contents
This section of the specification discusses some HTML elements andattributes that may be used for visual formatting of elements. Many ofthem aredeprecated.
Attribute definitions
This attribute sets the background color of the canvas for thedocument body (theBODY element) or fortables (theTABLE,
This attribute has beendeprecated in favor of style sheets forspecifying background color information.
It is possible to align block elements (tables, images, objects,paragraphs, etc.) on the canvas with thealignattribute. Although this attribute may be set for many HTML elements, itsrange of possible values sometimes differs from element to element. Here weonly discuss the meaning of the align attribute for text.
Attribute definitions
The default depends on the base text direction. For left toright text, the default isalign=left, while forright to left text, the default isalign=right.
DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
This example centers a heading on the canvas.
<H1 align="center"> How to Carve Wood </H1>
Using CSS, for example, you could achieve the same effect as follows:
<HEAD> <TITLE>How to Carve Wood</TITLE> <STYLE type="text/css"> H1 { text-align: center} </STYLE><BODY> <H1> How to Carve Wood </H1>Note that this would center allH1declarations. You could reduce the scope of the style by setting theclass attribute on the element:
<HEAD> <TITLE>How to Carve Wood</TITLE> <STYLE type="text/css"> H1.wood {text-align: center} </STYLE><BODY> <H1> How to Carve Wood </H1>DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
Similarly, to right align a paragraph on the canvas with HTML'salign attribute you could have:
<P align="right">...Lots of paragraph text...
which, with CSS, would be:
<HEAD> <TITLE>How to Carve Wood</TITLE> <STYLE type="text/css"> P.mypar {text-align: right} </STYLE><BODY> <P>...Lots of paragraph text...DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
To right align a series of paragraphs, group them with theDIV element:
<DIV align="right"> <P>...text in first paragraph... <P>...text in second paragraph... <P>...text in third paragraph...</DIV>
With CSS, the text-align property is inheritedfrom the parent element, you can therefore use:
<HEAD> <TITLE>How to Carve Wood</TITLE> <STYLE type="text/css"> DIV.mypars {text-align: right} </STYLE><BODY> <DIV> <P>...text in first paragraph... <P>...text in second paragraph... <P>...text in third paragraph... </DIV>To center the entire document with CSS:
<HEAD> <TITLE>How to Carve Wood</TITLE> <STYLE type="text/css"> BODY {text-align: center} </STYLE><BODY>...the body is centered...</BODY>TheCENTERelement is exactly equivalent to specifying the
Images and objects may appear directly "in-line" or may be floated toone side of the page, temporarily altering the margins of text that mayflow on either side of the object.
Thealign attribute for object, 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 thefollowing values:
DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
The following example shows how to float anIMG element to the currentleft margin of the canvas.
<IMG align="left" src="http://foo.com/animage.gif" alt="my boat">
Some alignment attributes also permit the "center" value, whichdoes not cause floating, but centers the object within the currentmargins. However, forP and
Another attribute, defined for theBRelement, controlstext flow around floating objects.
Attribute definitions
Consider the following visual scenario, where text flows to the rightof an image until a line is broken by aBR:
********* -------| | -------| image | --<BR>| |*********
If theclear attribute is set tonone, the line followingBRwill begin immediately below it at the right margin of the image:
********* -------| | -------| image | --<BR>| | ------*********
DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
If theclear attribute is set toleft orall, next line will appear asfollows:
********* -------| | -------| image | --<BR clear="left">| | *********-----------------
Using style sheets, you could specify that all line breaks should behavethis way for objects (images, tables, etc.) floating against the leftmargin. With CSS, you could achieve this as follows:
<STYLE type="text/css">BR { clear: left }</STYLE>To specify this behavior for a specific instance of the
<HEAD>...<STYLE type="text/css">BR#mybr { clear: left }</STYLE></HEAD><BODY><P>...********* -------| | -------| table | --<BR>| | *********-----------------...</BODY>The following HTML elements specify font information. Althoughthey are not alldeprecated, their use is discouraged in favor of stylesheets.
<!ENTITY % fontstyle "TT |I |B |BIG |SMALL"><!ELEMENT (%fontstyle;|%phrase;) - - (%inline;)*><!ATTLIST (%fontstyle;|%phrase;)%attrs; --%coreattrs,%i18n,%events -- >
Start tag:required, End tag:required
Attributes defined elsewhere
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:
<P><b>bold</b>,<i>italic</i>, <b><i>bold italic</i></b>, <tt>teletype text</tt>, and<big>big</big> and <small>small</small> text.
These words might be rendered as follows:
It is possible to achieve a much richer variety of font effects usingstyle sheets. To specify blue, italic text in a paragraph with CSS:
<HEAD><STYLE type="text/css">P.mypar {font-style: italic; color: blue}</STYLE></HEAD><P>...Lots of blue italic text...Font style elements must be properly nested. Rendering of nestedfont style elements depends on the user agent.
FONT and
See theTransitional DTDfor the formal definition.
Attribute definitions
Attributes defined elsewhere
TheFONT element changes the font size andcolor for text in its contents.
TheBASEFONT element sets the base fontsize (using thesize attribute). Font sizechanges achieved withFONT are relative tothe base font size set byBASEFONT. If
DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
The following example will show the difference between the seven font sizes available withFONT:
<P><font size=1>size=1</font><font size=2>size=2</font><font size=3>size=3</font><font size=4>size=4</font><font size=5>size=5</font><font size=6>size=6</font><font size=7>size=7</font>
This might be rendered as:
The following shows an example of the effect of relative font sizes usinga base font size of 3:
The base font size does not apply to headings, except where theseare modified using theFONT element with arelative font size change.
<!ELEMENTHR - O EMPTY -- horizontal rule --><!ATTLIST HR%coreattrs; --id,class,style,title --%events; >
Start tag:required, End tag:forbidden
Attribute definitions
The default isalign=center.
Attributes defined elsewhere
TheHR element causes a horizontal ruleto be rendered by visual user agents.
The amount of vertical space inserted between a rule and the contentthat surrounds it depends on the user agent.
DEPRECATED EXAMPLE:
Thisexample centers the rules, sizing them to half the available width betweenthe margins. The top rule has the default thickness while the bottom twoare set to 5 pixels. The bottom rule should be rendered in a solid colorwithout shading:
<HR width="50%" align="center"><HR size="5" width="50%" align="center"><HR noshade size="5" width="50%" align="center">
These rules might be rendered as follows:
