Markup Languages: More Than HTML5 - Web Standards: Mastering HTML5, CSS3, and XML - page 67

The most arguable elements are i and b that are not deprecated and can be used in every XHTML version
to create italic and bold texts, respectively. However, they are purely presentational elements without structural
meaning. Although most user agents render the appropriate structural elements ( em and strong ) similarly if not
identically to the i and b basic character formatting elements, em and strong are preferred.
As a general rule, use the XHTML 1.0 Strict elements and attributes only, and if you author XHTML5, extend the
markup with the new XHTML5 elements and attributes where needed.

Avoid Deprecated Attributes
Several HTML attributes are deprecated in XHTML in favor of other attributes or style sheets (see Table 3-6 ).

Table 3-6. Attributes Deprecated in XHTML

Attribute Deprecated in Favor of

alink Style sheets

align Style sheets

background

Style sheets

border Style sheets

color Style sheets

compact Style sheets

face Style sheets

height

Style sheets

language type attribute

link Style sheets

name id attribute

noshade Style sheets

nowrap

Style sheets

size Style sheets

start Style sheets

text Style sheets

type Style sheets

value

Style sheets

version DTDs

vlink Style sheets

width 8 Style sheets

8 It is deprecated on certain elements only (e.g., cannot be used on td , but allowed on img ).