XHTML by Example

Emphasizing Important Content

Readers are familiar with conventions used to point out portions of text that the author or publisher feels deserve special attention. XHTML provides several methods of demarking such content both inline within larger blocks, and as a distinct block in and of itself.

Inline Emphasis

Two of the most common means of providing emphasis in traditional print media are the use of boldface or italic. Both of these choices have strict presentational semantics attached to them: the change in font weight and style.

Emphasis in HTML first began with the <em> element for emphasis, and the <strong> element for strong emphasis. By tradition, the major browsers would render <em> as italic and <strong> as boldface. But many developers ...