HTML5 obsolete and deprecated elements
Up until HTML5, any existing elements or attributes that were removed from the HTML specification were known as deprecated elements. The idea of this was simple; a new specification has been released so there is no need to use any deprecated elements.
As you may know, HTML5 aims to be backward compatible. Therefore there are no deprecated elements, only obsolete elements. This means that you can use obsolete elements, which your browser will still render, however your web page will be “non-conforming” due to the use of these.
Below are a list of elements that are obsolete:
- frame
- frameset
- noframes
- acronym (use abbr instead)
Presentational elements such as:
- font
- big
- center
- strike
are also obsolete.
With the introduction of the HTML5 specification, there are other elements that have been given a re-education. These include:
- small – no longer means “render this at a small size.” It now means “this is the small print” for legals, T’s & C’s or privacy agreements.
- b – previous meaning “render in bold.” New meaning “to be visually different from the normal text, without conveying extra importance.”
- i – previous meaning “italicize.” New meaning “in an alternate voice or mood”
These re-educations are largely made to keep the specification and elements within relative to other non visual user agents such as screen readers.
‘Bold’ and ‘Italic’ are words that only make sense visually. The idea of developing towards non visual user agents encourages designer to think beyond basic visual design and development.
There is however, one element in the HTML5 specification that has not been re-educated but almost re-invented. The ‘a’ element has always been an inline element meaning multiple ‘a’ elements were needed for multiple hyperlinks.
In HTML5 multiple ‘a’ elements can be wrapped into a single ‘a’ element. For example:
<a href="index.html">
<h1>Welcome to my site</h1>
<p>Paragraph</p>
</a>
This is a huge step forward and encourages us to think more carefully when building our sites.
For more useful resources please visit:
W3 – 11 Obsolete features
W3 – HTML5 differences from HTML4
HTML5 Deprecated elements