The Web Design Group

b - Bold Text

Syntax <b>...</b>
Attribute Specifications
Contents Inline elements
Contained in Inline elements, block-level elements

The b element suggests that text be rendered as bold text. In most cases, use of a phrase element such as strong is more appropriate since such elements express the meaning of the text more clearly.

The b element is a suitable choice for marking a structure for which no phrase element exists. For example, vectors in mathematics have no structural element in XHTML 1.0, but bold text is often an appropriate visual rendering:

If two vectors <b class="vector">v</b> and <b class="vector">w</b> are orthogonal, we write <b class="vector">v</b> &perp; <b class="vector">w</b>.

Note the use of the class attribute to add structural significance to the b elements. This allows greater flexibility when applying style sheets to different kinds of bold text.

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