Ex-presentational elements and friends

While many HTML 4 elements have been brought into HTML5 essentially unchanged, HTML 4s presentational elements have either been made obsolete (replaced by CSS) or have been given new semantic meanings. This has been done because the presentational definitions they had were based around how they looked on screen, which doesnt help users of assistive technology such as people with visual impairments. HTML5 fixes this. First lets look at the old font styling elements and , and compare them to semantic stalwarts and . was italic and is now for text in an "alternate voice," such as foreign words, technical terms, and taxonomic designations. was bold and is now for "stylistically offset" text, such as keywords, product names in a review, or an article lede. was emphasis and is now for stress emphasis, such as something youd pronounce differently. wasforstrongeremphasisandisnowforstrongimportance(itsbasical lythesame). Well also look at four more elements in HTML5 that have undergone the transmogrification to mediaindependent semantics. wasforsmallertextandisnowusedforsidecommentssuchassmallprint. wasahorizontalruleandisnowusedforaparagraphlevelthematicbreak. was for strike-through and is now for content that is no longer relevant or accurate (well briefly touch on and for comparison). was for underlined text and is now used for a span of text with an unarticulated, though explicitly rendered, non-textural annotation; read on to find out what that actually means!