Heading elements implement six levels of document headings, <h1>
is the most important and <h6>
is the least. A heading element briefly describes the topic of the section it introduces. Heading information may be used by user agents, for example, to construct a table of contents for a document automatically( just like the fixed sider bar of this page on the right).
Usage note:
- Do not use lower levels to decrease heading font size: use the CSS
font-size
property instead. - Avoid skipping heading levels: always start from
<h1>
, next use<h2>
and so on. - With the
<section>
element, you should consider avoiding using <h1> more than once on a page; by convention, it's used for the page's displayed title, with all headings below starting with<h2>
. When using sections, you should use one<h1>
per section. See "Defining sections" in Using HTML sections and outlines for more information.
Content categories | Flow content, heading content, palpable content. |
---|---|
Permitted content | Phrasing content. |
Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parent elements | Any element that accepts flow content; don't use as a child of <hgroup> element, it is now deprecated |
DOM interface | HTMLHeadingElement |
AttributesEdit
These elements include the global attributes.
The align
attribute is obsolete; don't use it.
ExamplesEdit
All headings
The following code shows all the heading levels, in use.
<h1>Heading level 1</h1>
<h2>Heading level 2</h2>
<h3>Heading level 3</h3>
<h4>Heading level 4</h4>
<h5>Heading level 5</h5>
<h6>Heading level 6</h6>
Here is the result of this code:
Example page
The following code shows a few headings with some content under them.
<h1>Heading elements</h1>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>Some text here...</p>
<h2>Examples</h2>
<h3>Example 1</h3>
<p>Some text here...</p>
<h3>Example 2</h3>
<p>Some text here...</p>
<h2>See also</h2>
<p>Some text here...</p>
Here is the result of this code:
SpecificationsEdit
Specification | Status | Comment |
---|---|---|
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of '<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>' in that specification. |
Living Standard | |
HTML5 The definition of '<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>' in that specification. |
Recommendation | |
HTML 4.01 Specification The definition of '<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>' in that specification. |
Recommendation |
Browser compatibilityEdit
Feature | Chrome | Firefox (Gecko) | Internet Explorer | Opera | Safari |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic support | (Yes) | 1.0 (1.7 or earlier) | (Yes) | (Yes) | (Yes) |