HTML Tag

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The HTML  tag is a block-level element that is used to define a paragraph of text in a web page. It creates a new line before and after the element, taking up the full width of its parent container.

This semantic tag is commonly used to structure text content on a web page, such as articles, blog posts, or product descriptions. You can add other HTML tags, such as  or , within the  tag to add emphasis or formatting to specific words or phrases within the paragraph.

Properly structuring your text content with the  tag is important, as it can help improve the accessibility and usability of your web page. Screen readers and other assistive technologies rely on semantic tags like  to accurately interpret and present the content to users.

Syntax

The tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening () and closing () tags. If the closing tag is omitted, it is considered that the end of the paragraph matches with the start of the next block-level element.

Spaces between the opening tag and its content are ignored by the browser. In order to set an indent, use the CSS text-indent property .

The tag cannot contain tables and other block-level elements.

Example of the HTML tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>This is a paragraph</p>
  </body>
</html>

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Result

Using the CSS

To align a text in a paragraph, instead of the obsolete align attribute, use the CSS text-align property.

Example of the HTML tag used with the CSS text-align property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      div.paragraph {
        text-align: center;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Title of the document</h1>
    <div class="paragraph">
      <p>The text alignment to the center is set with CSS property text-align</p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

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Example of the HTML tag used with the tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p> Inside the paragraph, we can put the tag &lt;br /&gt;, <br> to transfer a part of the text to another line if necessary.</p>
    <p>Lorem ipsum, or lipsum as it is sometimes known, is dummy text used in laying out print, graphic or web designs. <br/> The passage is attributed to an unknown typesetter in the 15th century who is thought to have scrambled parts of Cicero's De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum for use in a type specimen book.</p>
  </body>
</html>

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Attributes

Attribute	Value	Description
align	right left justify	Defines the text alignment. Not supported in HTML5

The tag also supports the Global Attributes and the Event Attributes.

How to style tag?

Common properties to alter the visual weight/emphasis/size of text in 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 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 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 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.