HTML <legend> Tag

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The <legend> tag defines the caption for the group of form elements, grouped by the <fieldset> tag. In the browser, the group of form elements are framed, and the content of the <legend> tag is inserted into this frame. Generally, the <legend> tag is defined as the first element in the <fieldset> parent element.

The <legend> tag can specify titles for form sections being an alternative to the <h1>-<h6> heading elements. As already mentioned, they are intended to be used with <fieldset>. Creating form fields in <fieldset> groups with relevant <legend> captions will help to make complicated forms easier to use.

Syntax

The <legend> tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening (<legend>) and closing (</legend>) tags.

Example of the HTML <legend> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form>
      <fieldset>
        <legend>Personal data:</legend>
        Name:
        <input type="text">
        <br/>
        <br/> E-mail:
        <input type="email">
        <br/>
        <br/> Date of birth:
        <input type="number">
        <br/>
        <br/> Place of birth:
        <input type="text">
      </fieldset>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

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Result

Example of the HTML <legend> tag with CSS:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      form {
        width: 55%;
      }
      fieldset {
        padding: 25px;
      }
      label {
        display: inline-block;
        width: 95px;
        text-align: right;
      }
      legend {
        display: block;
        padding: 15px;
        margin-bottom: 10px;
        background-color: #cccccc;
        color: #777777;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form>
      <fieldset>
        <legend>Personal data:</legend>
        <label>Name:</label>
        <input type="text">
        <br/>
        <br/>
        <label>E-mail:</label>
        <input type="email">
        <br/>
        <br/>
        <label>Date of birth:</label>
        <input type="number">
        <br/>
        <br/>
        <label>Place of birth:</label>
        <input type="text">
      </fieldset>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

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Attributes

Attribute	Value	Description
align	top bottom left right	Defines the alignment of the caption. Not supported in HTML5.

The <legend> tag supports the Global Attributes and the Event Attributes.

How to style <legend> tag?

Common properties to alter the visual weight/emphasis/size of text in <legend> tag:

CSS font-style property sets the style of the font. normal | italic | oblique | initial | inherit.
CSS font-family property specifies a prioritized list of one or more font family names and/or generic family names for the selected element.
CSS font-size property sets the size of the font.
CSS font-weight property defines whether the font should be bold or thick.
CSS text-transform property controls text case and capitalization.
CSS text-decoration property specifies the decoration added to text, and is a shorthand property for text-decoration-line, text-decoration-color, text-decoration-style.

Coloring text in <legend> tag:

CSS color property describes the color of the text content and text decorations.
CSS background-color property sets the background color of an element.

Text layout styles for <legend> tag:

CSS text-indent property specifies the indentation of the first line in a text block.
CSS text-overflow property specifies how overflowed content that is not displayed should be signalled to the user.
CSS white-space property specifies how white-space inside an element is handled.
CSS word-break property specifies where the lines should be broken.

Other properties worth looking at for <legend> tag:

CSS text-shadow property adds shadow to text.
CSS text-align-last property sets the alignment of the last line of the text.
CSS line-height property specifies the height of a line.
CSS letter-spacing property defines the spaces between letters/characters in a text.
CSS word-spacing property sets the spacing between words.