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Re: <strong> vs <em>

for

From: Tim Beadle
Date: Feb 13, 2007 9:20AM

On 13/02/07, Penny Roberts < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> ... oh go on ....
> (Seriously, there is a lot to be learnt from reading the arguments put
> forward on both sides.)

1. <i> describes formatting - that something should be italic, but it
otherwise _means_ nothing.
2. <em> describes some meaning - that something should be emphasised.
3. <span> is a utility element with no semantics (except when
microformat attributes are added).

Therefore there is no semantic benefit to using <span class="italic"> over <i>.

There's a downside, though: you've added 21 bytes to your HTML (each
time you need italic text) and about 35 bytes (one time) to your CSS.

Tim