When to use the <i> Tag
The <i> is a valid part of HTML but its purpose is not to indicate emphasis - that's the job of the <em> tag (as used in this sentence). Instead the <i> tag should be used for all of the other instances where there is a convention of using italic text where the intent is not emphasis.
Here's a list of some of the places where it is appropriate to use the <i> tag in English (rules for other languages will almost certainly be different).
- titles of poems
- titles of books, plays, moviesnewspapers, articles and stories within a sentence on their own without explanation
- for foreign words discussed in a sentence
- foreign words or phrases not considered fully part of the English language
- a word is used as an example rather than for its meaning
- introducing new terms
- subjects of definitions
- mathematical symbols
- a letter or number used as a noun
- names of ships and aircraft
- in legal cases, italics are used when writing the name of the case
- the latinate names of genus and species when contained within regular text
There are probably many more specialist fields where italic text has a special meaning but the above list is sufficient to show why the <i> tag is required in HTML.
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