Web/HTML/Element/b

The HTML Bring Attention To element () is used to draw the reader's attention to the element's contents, which are not otherwise granted special importance. This was formerly known as the Boldface element, and most browsers still draw the text in boldface. However, you should not use  for styling text; instead, you should use the CSS font-weight property to create boldface text, or the  element to indicate that text is of special importance.

Content categories	Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content.
Permitted content	Phrasing content.
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts phrasing content.
Implicit ARIA role	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	Any
DOM interface	`HTMLElement`

Attributes

This element only includes the global attributes.

Usage notes

Use the  for cases like keywords in a summary, product names in a review, or other spans of text whose typical presentation would be boldfaced (but not including any special importance).
Do not confuse the  element with the , , or  elements. The  element represents text of certain importance,  puts some emphasis on the text and the  element represents text of certain relevance. The  element doesn't convey such special semantic information; use it only when no others fit.
Similarly, do not mark titles and headings using the  element. For this purpose, use the <h1> to <h6> tags. Further, stylesheets can change the default style of these elements, with the result that they are not necessarily displayed in bold.
It is a good practice to use the class attribute on the  element in order to convey additional semantic information as needed (for example  for the first sentence in a paragraph). This makes it easier to manage multiple use cases of  if your stylistic needs change, without the need to change all of its uses in the HTML.
Historically, the  element was meant to make text boldface. Styling information has been deprecated since HTML4, so the meaning of the  element has been changed.
If there is no semantic purpose to using the  element, you should use the CSS font-weight property with the value "bold" instead in order to make text bold.

Examples

<p>
  This article describes several <b class="keywords">text-level</b> elements.
  It explains their usage in an <b class="keywords">HTML</b> document.   
</p>
Keywords are displayed with the default style of the <b>element, likely in bold.</b>

Result

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of '<b>' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5The definition of '<b>' in that specification.	Recommendation
HTML 4.01 SpecificationThe definition of '<b>' in that specification.	Recommendation

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`b`	Chrome Full support Yes	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1 Notes' Full support 1 Notes' Notes' Before Firefox 4, this element implemented the `HTMLSpanElement` interface instead of the standard `HTMLElement` interface.	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support: Full support
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.