footer
elementheader
or footer
element descendants.HTMLElement
.The footer
element represents
a footer for its nearest ancestor sectioning content or sectioning root element. A footer typically
contains information about its section such as who wrote it, links
to related documents, copyright data, and the like.
When the footer
element contains entire sections,
they represent appendices, indexes, long colophons,
verbose license agreements, and other such content.
Contact information for the author or editor of a
section belongs in an address
element, possibly itself inside a
footer
. Bylines and other information
that could be suitable for both a header
or a footer
can be placed in either (or
neither). The primary purpose of these elements is merely to help
the author write self-explanatory markup that is easy to maintain
and style; they are not intended to impose specific structures on
authors.
Footers don't necessarily have to appear at the end of a section, though they usually do.
When the nearest ancestor sectioning content or sectioning root element is the body element, then it applies to the whole page.
The footer
element is not sectioning content; it doesn't
introduce a new section.
Here is a page with two footers, one at the top and one at the bottom, with the same content:
<body> <footer><a href="../">Back to index...</a></footer> <hgroup> <h1>Lorem ipsum</h1> <h2>The ipsum of all lorems</h2> </hgroup> <p>A dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.</p> <footer><a href="../">Back to index...</a></footer> </body>
Here is an example which shows the footer
element being used both for a
site-wide footer and for a section footer.
<!DOCTYPE HTML> <HTML><HEAD> <TITLE>The Ramblings of a Scientist</TITLE> <BODY> <H1>The Ramblings of a Scientist</H1> <ARTICLE> <H1>Episode 15</H1> <VIDEO SRC="/fm/015.ogv" CONTROLS PRELOAD> <P><A HREF="/fm/015.ogv">Download video</A>.</P> </VIDEO> <FOOTER> <!-- footer for article --> <P>Published <TIME DATETIME="2009-10-21T18:26-07:00">on 2009/10/21 at 6:26pm</TIME></P> </FOOTER> </ARTICLE> <ARTICLE> <H1>My Favorite Trains</H1> <P>I love my trains. My favorite train of all time is a Köf.</P> <P>It is fun to see them pull some coal cars because they look so dwarfed in comparison.</P> <FOOTER> <!-- footer for article --> <P>Published <TIME DATETIME="2009-09-15T14:54-07:00">on 2009/09/15 at 2:54pm</TIME></P> </FOOTER> </ARTICLE> <FOOTER> <!-- site wide footer --> <NAV> <P><A HREF="/credits.html">Credits</A> — <A HREF="/tos.html">Terms of Service</A> — <A HREF="/index.html">Blog Index</A></P> </NAV> <P>Copyright © 2009 Gordon Freeman</P> </FOOTER> </BODY> </HTML>
Some site designs have what is sometimes referred to as "fat footers" — footers that contain a lot of material, including images, links to other articles, links to pages for sending feedback, special offers... in some ways, a whole "front page" in the footer.
This fragment shows the bottom of a page on a site with a "fat footer":
... <footer> <nav> <section> <h1>Articles</h1> <p><img src="images/somersaults.jpeg" alt=""> Go to the gym with our somersaults class! Our teacher Jim takes you through the paces in this two-part article. <a href="articles/somersaults/1">Part 1</a> · <a href="articles/somersaults/1">Part 2</a></p> <p><img src="images/kindplus.jpeg"> Tired of walking on the edge of a clif<!-- sic -->? Our guest writer Lara shows you how to bumble your way through the bars. <a href="articles/kindplus/1">Read more...</a></p> <p><img src="images/crisps.jpeg"> The chips are down, now all that's left is a potato. What can you do with it? <a href="articles/crisps/1">Read more...</a></p> </section> <ul> <li> <a href="/about">About us...</a> <li> <a href="/feedback">Send feedback!</a> <li> <a href="/sitemap">Sitemap</a> </ul> </nav> <p><small>Copyright © 2015 The Snacker — <a href="/tos">Terms of Service</a></small></p> </footer> </body>