B - Bold Text

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 HTML 4.0, 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.

More Information

• B in W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation
• B in W3C HTML 3.2 Recommendation
• B in HTML 2.0 Standard
• B in WDG HTML 3.2 Reference
• B in Learning HTML 3.2 by Examples