HTML <xmp> Tag

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The <xmp> renders the text between the start and end tags without interpreting the HTML in between and using a monospaced font.

The <xmp> tag is obsolete and is not supported in HTML5. Use the <pre> element instead. Note, that you will need to use '<' instead of the '< >' characters to make sure it is not interpreted as markup.

Syntax

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

Example of the HTML <xmp> tag

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>The title of the document</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <xmp> This is a preformatted text.
      All characters in this area have the same width,
      and the spaces and line breaks within this element are shown as typed.
    </xmp>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

Attributes

The <xmp> tag also supports the Global Attributes.

How to style <xmp> tag?

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