About the HTML Emphasize Text Generator
Seven elements make text stand out and they are not interchangeable, even though several look identical on screen. <em> marks stress emphasis, the word you would lean on when reading the sentence aloud, and moving it changes the meaning of the sentence. <strong> marks importance or urgency, such as a warning, and does not shift the sense of the words around it. Both are announced by some screen readers; the presentational pair below them are not.
<i> is for text in a different voice or mood, which covers a taxonomic name, a foreign phrase or a ship name. <b> draws attention without implying importance, such as a keyword at the start of a paragraph or a product name in a review. <u> is an unarticulated annotation, most often a spelling error marker, and is risky on the web because readers read an underline as a link. <s> means no longer accurate or no longer relevant, for instance a superseded price, and is not the element for a legal deletion, which is <del>. <small> is for side comments and small print.
The nesting option produces <strong><em>, which is how you say important and stressed at once, rather than reaching for a font-weight rule. Text is escaped, so an ampersand or bracket in the sentence stays valid. To highlight a word as if with a pen instead, use the HTML Mark Text Generator.
How to use
- Type or paste the sentence.
- Choose the element that matches your meaning.
- Tick nesting for importance and stress together.
- Copy the markup into your page.
Common questions
- What is the real difference between em and strong?
- em changes which word the sentence leans on, so moving it changes the meaning. strong says the passage matters, and where it sits does not alter the sense.
- Is b just bold and i just italic?
- They are stylistically offset text with no emphasis attached: b for a keyword you want noticed, i for a different voice such as a Latin name.
- Should I underline text with u?
- Rarely. On the web an underline reads as a link, so choose another treatment unless you are marking something like a spelling error.
- Which element marks deleted text?
- Use del for an edit to a document. s only means the content is no longer accurate or relevant, such as an old price.