The <b> tag displays text in bold.
This tag highlights text in bold, but without special importance.
For important text that needs bolding, use the <strong> tag.
A <b> tag that boldens the word 'Monday'.
Let's go visit the Louvre in Paris on Monday.
<p>Let's go visit the Louvre in Paris on <b>Monday</b>.</p>
b = bold
A couple <b> tags that highlight some text fragments.
Cézanne's early work is often concerned with the figure in the landscape and includes many paintings of groups of large, heavy figures in the landscape, imaginatively painted.
Later in his career, he became more interested in working from direct observation and gradually developed a light, airy painting style
<p>
Cézanne's <b>early work</b> is often concerned with the figure
in the landscape and includes many paintings of groups of large,
heavy figures in the landscape, imaginatively painted.
</p>
<p>
<b>Later in his career</b>, he became more interested in working
from direct observation and gradually developed a light,
airy painting style
</p>
Tip: The bold tag has been called an 'element of last resort'. There are alternative approaches, particularly CSS, which give you more control.
The <b> element has no attributes, but it does accept global attributes.
The following are occasionally used.
| Attribute | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| id | value | Provides the b element with a unique identifier. |
| class | classnames | Assigns one or more classnames to the b element. |
| style | CSS-values | Assigns CSS style values to the b element. |
For additional global attributes see our global attributes list.
The <b> and <strong> elements both make the text appear in bold.
In the early days of HTML, the <b> tag was used to emphasize or highlight text.
When semantic tags were introduced in HTML5, the <strong> tag became the preferred approach to display important text that requires emphasis or highlighting.
The <b> tag is part of a group of tags
that are used to create and format text documents.
This group is referred to as the Text tag group.
Together, they allow you to create comprehensive HTML text documents.
Here is a list of text tags.
| Element | Description |
|---|---|
| <h1>-<h6> | Defines text headings in 6 different sizes |
| <p> | Creates a paragraph |
| <span> | Container for one or more inline text elements |
| <br> | Creates a line break |
| <sup> | Specifies superscript text |
| <sub> | Specifies subscripted text |
| <u> | Specifies underlined text |
| <i> | Specifies italic text |
| <b> | Specifies bold text |
| <em> | Marks text that needs emphasis |
| <strong> | Indicates text that is important or with high urgency |
| <del> | Defines deleted text |
| <ins> | Defines inserted text |
| <ruby> | Represents a small annotation with pronunciation of text |
| <kbd> | Specifies keyboard input, such as, CTRL or ALT |
| <wbr> | Specifies a preferred word-break location for long words |
Here is when <b> support started for each browser:
 Chrome
|
1.0 | Sep 2008 |
 Firefox
|
1.0 | Sep 2002 |
 IE/Edge
|
1.0 | Aug 1995 |
 Opera
|
1.0 | Jan 2006 |
 Safari
|
1.0 | Jan 2003 |
