HTML Physical Styles

There are two type of formatting tags available in HTML -- physical and logical. Physical tags indicate the type of font that is to be used to display the text, while logical fonts describe the type of text, and leave it to the browser to decide how that type of text should be displayed. The preferred method is logical, since it gives browsers greater flexibility in rendering output. However, there are times when it is necessary to use physical tags. For example, if you are giving instructions, you may wish to state that some portions of your text will be in italics. In this case, you need to be sure that the text really does appear in an italic font. This page illustrates physical style tags.

Here are the physical markup tags in HTML:

Italic: <I>

This paragraph is in an italic tag. The EM (emphasis) logical tag is usually displayed in an italic font, and is recommended over the I tag.

Bold: <B>

This paragraph is in a bold tag. It should appear in a boldface font. Most browsers display text in the logical tag <STRONG> the same way that they display text in a <B> tag. Use of the logical tag is recommended over B.

Typewriter: <TT>

This paragraph is in a typewriter tag. It should appear in a fixed-width typewriter font. We have found that many browsers do not support it.

Strikeout: <STRIKE>

This paragraph is in a strike tag. It should be crossed-out.

New Physical Tags in HTML 3.2

Large Font: <BIG>

Use a larger font than surrounding text.

Small Font: <SMALL>

Use a smaller font than surrounding text.

Subscript: <SUB>

Text should be in _Subscript.

Superscript: <SUP>

Text should be in ^Superscript

The Netscape blink tag is one of the most controversial tags and is not widely supported.