HTML Block and Inline Elements

Every HTML element has a default display value depending on what type of element it is.

The two display values are: block and inline.

Block-level Elements

A block-level element always starts on a new line and takes up the full width available (stretches out to the left and right as far as it can).

The <div> element is a block-level element.

<div>Hello World</div>

Block level elements in HTML:

<address> <article> <aside> <blockquote> <canvas> <dd> <div> <dl> <dt> <fieldset> <figcaption> <figure> <footer> <form> <h1>-<h6>

<header> <hr> <li> <main> <nav> <noscript> <ol> <p> <pre> <section> <table> <tfoot> <ul> <video>

Inline Elements

An inline element does not start on a new line and only takes up as much width as necessary.

This is an inline <span> element inside a paragraph.

<span>Hello World</span>

Inline level elements in HTML:

<a> <abbr> <acronym> <b> <bdo> <big> <br> <button> <dfn> <em> <i> <img> <input> <kbd> <label> <map> <object> <output> <q> <samp>

<script> <select> <small> <span> <strong> <sub> <sup> <textarea> <time> <tt> <var>

The <div> Element

The <div> element is often used as a container for other HTML elements.

The <div> element has no required attributes, but style, class and id are common.

When used together with CSS, the <div> element can be used to style blocks of content:

<div style="background-color:black;color:white;padding:20px;">
    <h2>London</h2>
    <p>London is the capital city of England. It is the most populous city in the United Kingdom, with a metropolitan area of over 13 million inhabitants.</p>
</div>

The <span> Element

The <span> element is often used as a container for some text.

The <span> element has no required attributes, but style, class and id are common.

When used together with CSS, the <span> element can be used to style parts of the text:

<h1>My <span style="color:red">Important</span> Heading</h1>

HTML Grouping Tags

Tag	Description
<div>	Defines a section in a document (block-level)
<span>	Defines a section in a document (inline)

For a complete list of all available HTML tags, visit our HTML Tag Reference.

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