Before the advent of style sheets, authors had limited control over rendering. HTML 3.2 included a number of attributes and elements offering control over alignment, font size, and text color.
Style sheets give both authors and users control over the presentation of documents. Style sheets simplify HTML markup, stripping presentational elements and attributes from the markup. HTML 4 implemented style sheets and accessibility standards, so many of HTML's presentation elements and attributes are being phased out, or deprecated.
Below are tables of commonly-used deprecated elements and attributes, and their CSS replacements. Use of deprecated elements and attributes under the XHTML Strict DTD will cause HTML validation errors, so be sure to avoid the use of any deprecated elements in any of your work; only use CSS properties for specifying presentation. For a complete list of deprecated elements and attributes, please see the resources below.
| Deprecated Elements and CSS Replacements | |
|---|---|
| Element | CSS Equivalent |
| BASEFONT | body { font-size: nn%; } |
| CENTER | text-align: center; CSS declaration |
| FONT | font, font-family, or font-size properties |
| Deprecated Attributes and CSS Replacements | |
|---|---|
| Attribute | CSS Equivalent |
| ALIGN | text-align property |
| BORDER | border property |
| COLOR | color property |
| FACE | font-family property |
Despite validation errors, many modern browsers will faithfully render deprecated elements and attributes. However, designers cannot depend on support for deprecated elements and attributes in future versions of a user agent.
Resources
-
Complete Reference of Deprecated
Elements
and
Attributes
-
W3C Index of
Elements
and
Attributes