 Home > Abakada: Back to Basics > Language References > HTML Elements > I Element
| Renders text in italic type. | HTML 2, 3.2, 4, 4.01, 5 |
HTML Syntax
<i
class = classname
id = value
style = css_style_rules
title = text
>
 NOTE: Both start and end tags are required.
The <i> element represents a span of text in an alternate voice or mood, or otherwise offset from the normal prose.
The element is appropriate for text that is intended to stand out from the rest of the paragraph, such as, for example, a thought, an idiomatic phrase from another language, transliteration, a technical term, or a taxonomic designation.
Most browsers render text within <i> tags in italicized type by default.
Authors can use CSS, though, to convey additional semantic information as needed, for example, to change color or font-weight. This makes it easier to manage multiple use cases of the <i> element.
For instance, the <i> tags within the pages in this workshop render in maroon, and in another color within code sample snippets.
The <i> element is similar in function to the <em> emphasized element.
The <i> element has no attribute of its own, but supports global attributes common to all HTML elements.
The following shows how the i element may be used.
<p>This paragraph has <i>some italic text</i>.</p>
which would render on a Web page as
This paragraph has some italic text.
B EM S STRIKE STRONG U
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