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i

Summary

The i element indicates that the contained text is in an alternate voice, mood, or language from the surrounding text.

Overview Table

DOM Interface
HTMLElement

Examples

A simple example of the i element in use.

<p>The car wouldn't start yesterday
no matter what I did, but today it works
just fine. <i>Go figure!</i></p>

This example uses the I element to indicate the transition to an alternate language. Note that the [html/attributes/lang

<p>HTML has that certain
<i lang="fr" title="I don’t know what">je ne
sais quoi</i></p>

Usage

 The i element is a phrasing-level element. It must not contain block-level elements, but it can contain other phrasing-level elements.

Notes

The i element was historically used to indicate that the text should be rendered in Italic type, where available. By default, most browsers still render the i element in italics, but you can change that in CSS.

If you are looking to emphasize a word or phrase, the em element would be a better choice.

If you wish to italicize the name of a creative work (e.g. a magazine, book, or film title), use the cite element instead.

Internationalization topics related to the i element:

Related specifications

HTML 5.1
W3C Working Draft
HTML 5
W3C Recommendation
HTML 4.01
W3C Recommendation

See also

Related articles

HTML

Text

Attributions