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- What is it?
- This tag applies a large size font formatting to text. It is the
HTML 3 answer to the FONT tag (introduced by Netscape and Internet
Explorer which runs counter to general HTML ideology of divorcing display
details from content.) BIG and its companion tag SMALL answer the needs
of having alternate character level tags for controlling font size while
also not being specific in HOW to display the tag (A virtual style tag.)
The new HTML 3.2 draft specification, however, supports both font size
control mechanisms.
Style Sheet Attributes
[More on Cascading Style Sheets]
- Class
- 2 | 3
| 3.2 | IE3B1
| M | N4B2
- Required? No
- Description:
This represents an assigned semantic classification grouping(s) for the
current tag.
- Values:
Given as a comma separated list of alphanumeric characters. Class names
may contain spaces (multiple consecutive spaces treated as a single
space.)
- ID
- 2 | 3
| 3.2 | IE3B1
| M | N4B2
- Required? No
- Description:
This assigns an alpha-numeric identifier that is unique
to this tag instance. Style sheets may use this attribute to reference
the current instance of this tag. Hyperlinks may also use this identifier
to serve as a destination.
- Values:
An alphanumeric string - initial character must be a letter followed
by alphabetic characters, digits, "-" or "."
characters. The allowable set of alpha-characters is restricted to the
A-Z and a-z set.
- Style
- 2 | 3
| 3.2 | IE3B1
| M | N4B3
- Required? No
- Description:
This attribute is a text string that provides rendering style
information for the current tag.
- Values:
Please see the description of
inline styles for more
information on how to use this attribute and its
possible values.
- Example
- <big>text</big>
- Parent Model
-
%Anchors% |
%Virtual
Formatting% |
%Physical
Formatting% |
%Block Format
Parent% |
%Multimedia
Parent% |
<Body> |
<Address> |
<Basefont> |
<Heading> |
<Marquee>
Exceptions: <Pre>
- Content Model
- %Text% |
%Anchors% |
%Virtual Formatting% |
%Physical Formatting% |
%Line Break Content% |
%Multimedia Content%
Tips & Tricks
- Although BIG is an official tag, more control is allowed by the
FONT SIZE tag that is also supported by HTML 3.2
and many browsers.
Browser Peculiarities
- The equivalent FONT SIZE value for BIG text generally used by
browsers is 4 (default FONT size is generally 3.)
- If you conflict this tag with a SMALL tag it appears that the
text will be rendered as SMALL every time (nesting order does not
matter.)
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