The HTML <b> element represents a span of text stylistically different from normal text, without conveying any special importance or relevance, and that is typically rendered in boldface.
| Content categories | Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content. |
|---|---|
| Permitted content | Phrasing content. |
| Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
| Permitted parents | Any element that accepts phrasing content. |
| Permitted ARIA roles | Any |
| DOM interface | HTMLElement Up to Gecko 1.9.2 (Firefox 4) inclusive, Firefox implements the HTMLSpanElement interface for this element. |
Attributes
This element only includes the global attributes.
Usage notes
- Use the
<b>for cases like keywords in a summary, product names in a review, or other spans of text whose typical presentation would be boldfaced. - Do not confuse the
<b>element with the<strong>,<em>, or<mark>elements. The<strong>element represents text of certain importance,<em>puts some emphasis on the text and the<mark>element represents text of certain relevance. The<b>element doesn't convey such special semantic information; use it only when no others fit. - Similarly, do not mark titles and headings using the
<b>element. For this purpose, use the<h1>to<h6>tags. Further, stylesheets can change the default style of these elements, with the result that they are not necessarily displayed in bold. - It is a good practice to use the class attribute on the
<b>in order to convey additional semantic information (for example<b class="lead">for the first sentence in a paragraph). This eases the development of several stylings of a web document, without the need to change its HTML code. - Historically, the
<b>element was meant to make text boldface. Styling information has been deprecated since HTML4, so the meaning of the<b>element has been changed. - If there is no semantic purpose on using the <b> element, using css property font-weight with bold value would be a better choice for making text bold.
Example
<p> This article describes several <b class="keywords">text-level</b> elements. It explains their usage in an <b class="keywords">HTML</b> document. </p> Keywords are displayed with the default style of the <b> element, likely in bold.
Result
This article describes several text-level elements. It explains their usage in an HTML document.
Keywords are displayed with the default style of the <b> element, likely in bold.
Specifications
| Specification | Status | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of '<b>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
| HTML5 The definition of '<b>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | |
| HTML 4.01 Specification The definition of '<b>' in that specification. |
Recommendation |
Browser compatibility
| Feature | Chrome | Edge | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) | 1.0 (1.7 or earlier) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |
| Feature | Android | Edge | Firefox Mobile (Gecko) | IE Mobile | Opera Mobile | Safari Mobile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic support | (Yes) | (Yes) | 1.0 (1.0) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |
See also
- Others elements conveying text-level semantics:
<a>,<em>,<strong>,<small>,<cite>,<q>,<dfn>,<abbr>,<time>,<code>,<var>,<samp>,<kbd>,<sub>,<sup>,<i>,<mark>,<ruby>,<rp>,<rt>,<bdo>,<span>,<br>,<wbr>. - Using <b> and <i> elements (W3C)
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