HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Discussion
After looking at this example, you may be wondering what is new here, since
em
has
been around since HTML4. The difference is that HTML5 slightly redefines
em
for text
with “emphatic stress,” which I translate as any text that, when spoken, I would verbally
emphasize.
Redefining <i>
Another change in HTML5's text-level semantics is that the
i
element is no longer
considered presentational. You can now use
i
to indicate text that is in an alternate
voice or mood, or somehow offset from the normal prose; for example, a taxonomic
designation, a technical term, a thought, an idiomatic phrase, or some other text whose
typical typographic presentation is italicized:
<p>Sally thought to herself,
<i>when will IE6 die?</i>
</p>
Despite the new semantic distinction, browsers typically render both
em
and
i
in italics
(see
Figure 1-2
). Of course, you can change the default styling of either element with
CSS.
Figure 1-2. Browsers render both the <i> and <em> elements in italics
See Also
HTML5 Doctor's article “The i, b, em, & strong elements” at
http://html5doctor.com/
