This is revision 1.5612.
br
elementinterface HTMLBRElement : HTMLElement {};
The br
element represents a line
break.
While line breaks are usually represented in visual media by physically moving subsequent text to a new line, a style sheet or user agent would be equally justified in causing line breaks to be rendered in a different manner, for instance as green dots, or as extra spacing.
br
elements must be used only for line breaks that
are actually part of the content, as in poems or addresses.
The following example is correct usage of the br
element:
<p>P. Sherman<br> 42 Wallaby Way<br> Sydney</p>
br
elements must not be used for separating thematic
groups in a paragraph.
The following examples are non-conforming, as they abuse the
br
element:
<p><a ...>34 comments.</a><br> <a ...>Add a comment.</a></p>
<p><label>Name: <input name="name"></label><br> <label>Address: <input name="address"></label></p>
Here are alternatives to the above, which are correct:
<p><a ...>34 comments.</a></p> <p><a ...>Add a comment.</a></p>
<p><label>Name: <input name="name"></label></p> <p><label>Address: <input name="address"></label></p>
If a paragraph consists of nothing but a single
br
element, it represents a placeholder blank line
(e.g. as in a template). Such blank lines must not be used for
presentation purposes.
Any content inside br
elements must not be
considered part of the surrounding text.
A br
element should separate paragraphs for the
purposes of the Unicode bidirectional algorithm. This requirement
may be implemented indirectly through the style layer. For example,
an HTML+CSS user agent could implement these requirements by
implementing the CSS 'unicode-bidi' property. [BIDI] [CSS]