Obsolete HTML elements and attributes
Metadata
If the version attribute of an html
element is present, its value MAY be any
string.
If the http-equiv attribute
of a meta element is in the content-language
state, the content attribute
value MUST be a valid BCP 47 language
tag.
If the http-equiv attribute
of a meta element is in the cookie state, the content attribute value MUST be a set-cookie-string
[COOKIES]. For the purpose of
validation of this attribute value, the character set of the ABNF
production rule of the set-cookie-string is Unicode.
The content model of
the basefont element is nothing.
If the scheme attribute of the meta
element is present, its value MAY be any
string.
The content model of
the bgsound element
is nothing.
If the prefix attribute
of an html or head element is specified, it
value MUST be one of these values:
og: http://ogp.me/ns#
og: http://ogp.me/ns# fb: http://ogp.me/ns/fb#
og: http://ogp.me/ns# fb: http://ogp.me/ns/fb# article: http://ogp.me/ns/article#
The property attribute might be used as part of
OGP.
Flow content
The content model of
the center element is same as the div
element.
The content model of xmp, listing, and plaintext
elements are text.
Lists
The content model of the dir
element, including the content model of the child
li elements of the elements, is same as the
ul element.
If the type
attribute of a ul element is present, its value MUST be equal to one of disc,
circle, and square, ASCII case-insensitively. If
the type attribute of
an li element is
present, its value MUST be one of values
allowed for type attributes of ul and
ol elements.
The compact
attribute of the dir, dl, menu,
ol, or ul element is a boolean
attribute.
Tables
If the abbr
attribute of a td element is present, its value MUST be a syntactically valid value of the abbr attribute of the th
element.
If the axis
attribute of a td or th element is present,
its value MAY be any string.
If the scope
attribute of a td element is present, its value MUST be a syntactically valid value of the scope attribute of the th
element.
The marquee element
The content model of the marquee element is same as the div
element.
If the scrolldelay attribute of a
marquee element is present, its value MUST be a valid non-negative
integer.
If the scrollamount attribute of a
marquee element is present, its value MUST be a valid non-negative
integer.
If the loop attribute of a marquee
element is present, its value MUST be a
valid integer that represents −1 or an integer
greater than 0.
Attributes behavior and direction of the
marquee element are enumerated attributes. Attribute truespeed of the
marquee element is a boolean attribute.
The following attributes of the marquee element are
event handler content attributes:
onbounce, onfinish, and onstart.
Boxes
Dimension
If the height or width attribute of
a table, td, th, or
marquee element is specified, its value MUST be a valid non-negative
integer.
The col element's width attribute value MUST be a valid non-negative integer.
The hr element's width attribute value MUST be a valid non-negative integer.
The tr element's height attribute value MUST be a valid non-negative integer.
If the width attribute of a
colgroup element [HTML4] is present, its value MUST be a valid dimension value or an
optional valid non-negative integer followed by a U+002A
ASTERISK character (*).
The pre element's width attribute value MUST be a valid non-negative
integer.
The hr element's size attribute value MUST be a valid non-negative integer.
Margin and padding
The body element's marginheight, marginwidth, topmargin, and
rightmargin attribute values MUST be valid non-negative integers. The iframe
and frame elements' marginheight and marginwidth attribute values MUST be valid non-negative integers.
The table element's cellspacing, cellpadding, and cellborder
[SAFARI] attribute values MUST be valid non-negative integers.
If the hspace or
vspace attribute of
an embed, iframe, img,
input, marquee, object,
or table element is specified, its
value MUST be a valid dimension
value. The hspace
and vspace attributes of
the input element apply only to elements
whoes type attribute is in
the Image Button
state.
The units
attribute of the embed element [DEVEDGE] [MSDN] is an
enumerated attribute with keywords pixels, px, en, and em.
Borders
The rules
attribute of a table element is an enumerated
attribute with keywords none, groups, rows, cols,
and all.
The frame
attribute of a table element is an enumerated
attribute with keywords void, above, below, hsides, lhs, rhs,
vsides, box, and border.
The table element's border attribute value MUST either be the empty string or the value 1.
The table element's tableborder attribute value [SAFARI]
MUST be a valid non-negative
integer.
If the border
attribute of an embed [DEVEDGE],
img, or object element, or an
input element whose type attribute is in the Image Button state is specified,
its value MUST be a valid non-negative
integer.
The hr element's noshade attribute is a boolean
attribute.
Overflow
The scrolling attribute of a
frame or iframe element is an
enumerated attribute with keywords on,
scroll, yes, off, noscroll, no,
and auto. Keywords other than yes, no, and auto are non‐
conforming.
Background images and colors
The body, table, thead,
tbody, tfoot, tr,
td, and th elements' background attribute
values MUST be valid non-empty URLs potentially
surrounded by spaces.
A valid legacy color value is either a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#) followed by six (6)
characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT ZERO
(0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9), U+0041 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to U+0046 LATIN CAPITAL LETTER F, and U+0061 LATIN SMALL LETTER A to U+0066 LATIN SMALL LETTER F, or a string that ASCII case-insensitively matches
to one of the keywords listed in the SVG color
keywords section of the CSS Color specification [CSSCOLOR].
The body, table, thead,
tbody, tfoot, tr,
td, th, and marquee elements'
bgcolor attribute
values MUST be valid legacy color values.
The body element's text, link, vlink, and alink attribute values MUST be valid legacy color values.
The table, tr [MSDN], td
[MSDN], and th [MSDN]
elements' bordercolor attribute values MUST be valid legacy color values. The table,
tr, td, and th elements' bordercolordark and bordercolorlight attribute
values [MSDN] MUST be valid legacy color values.
The color
attribute value of the font element, if present, MUST be a valid legacy color
value.
The hr element's color attribute value MUST be a valid legacy color
value.
The allowtransparency attribute of
frame and iframe element [MSDN] is an
enumerated attribute with keywords true and false.
The application attribute of
frame and iframe element [MSDN] is an
enumerated attribute with keywords yes
and no.
The bgproperties attribute of the
body element [MSDN] is an enumerated
attribute with two keywords: fixed and the
empty string.
Alignments
The align
attribute of a table element is an enumerated
attribute with keywords left, right, center, middle, abscenter, and absmiddle. Keywords middle, abscenter, and absmiddle are non‐
conforming.
The align attribute of a caption
element is an enumerated attribute with keywords left, right, top,
and bottom,
The align
attribute of a legend element is an enumerated
attribute with keywords left, right, and center.
The align attribute of
elements div, h1, h2,
h3, h4, h5, h6,
and p, is an enumerated attribute with
keywords left, right, center, and justify.
The align
attribute of a hr element is an enumerated
attribute with keywords left, right, and center.
The align
attribute of a col, colgroup [HTML4],
thead, tbody, tfoot,
tr, th, or td element is an
enumerated attribute with keywords left, center, middle,
absmiddle, right, justify, and char, where middle and absmiddle are
non-conforming.
The align attribute of
an embed, iframe, img,
input, or object element is
an enumerated attribute with
keywords left, right,
top, bottom,
baseline, center,
middle, texttop,
absmiddle, abscenter. Keywords
other than left, right,
top, middle,
and bottom are non-conforming.
The align attribute of
the input element applies only to input
elements whose type attribute is in
the Image Button
state.
The valign attribute of a col,
colgroup [HTML4], thead,
tbody, tfoot, tr,
th, or td attribute is an enumerated
attribute with keywords top, middle, bottom, and baseline.
The valign attribute of a
caption element [MSDN] is an enumerated
attribute with keywords top and bottom.
If the char
attribute of a col, colgroup [HTML4],
thead, tbody, tfoot,
tr, th, or td element is
present, its value MUST be a string whose
length is one (1), i.e. a character.
If the charoff attribute of a col,
colgroup [HTML4], thead,
tbody, tfoot, tr,
th, or td element is present, its value MUST be a valid dimension value.
Line breaks
The nowrap
attribute of body, dt, dd, and
div elements [MSDN], as well as of td and
th elements, is a boolean attribute.
The wrap
attribute of the pre element is a boolean
attribute.
The clear
attribute of the br element and address,
blockquote, center, h1,
h2, h3, h4, h5,
h6, listing, p,
plaintext, pre, and xmp
elements [MSDN] is an enumerated
attribute with keywords none, left, right, all,
and both, where both is
non-conforming.
Phrasing content
The content model of acronym,
big, blink, nobr, strike, and tt elements are same as the span
element.
The font element
Content model of the font element
is transparent.
If the face
attribute of a font element is present, its value MAY be any string.
If the size
attribute of a font element is present, its value MUST be an optional U+002B PLUS SIGN character (+) or an optional U+002D HYPHEN-MINUS character (-), followed by a
character in the range U+0031 DIGIT ONE
(1) to U+0037 DIGIT SEVEN (7).
Hyperlinks
A valid hash-ID reference to an element of type type is a string consisting of a U+0023 NUMBER SIGN character (#) followed by a string
which exactly matches the ID of an element with type type
in the same home subtree.
The x-ms-format-detection attribute
of HTML elements [MSDN] is enumerated attribute
with keywords all, none, and
phone.
The nohref
attribute of the area element is a boolean
attribute.
If the charset attribute of an
a or link element is present, its
value MUST be a label. The term
label is defined by the
Encoding
Standard.
If the coords
attribute and/or the shape attribute of an a element is
present, their values, and their presence themselves, MUST be valid if they were specified for an
area element with appropriate href and
alt attributes specified.
Embedded content
If there are embed, and/or img elements
with their name attributes specified, those elements
MUST be treated as if they were a
elements for the purpose of conformance of name
attributes of a, embed,
and img elements in the document, except that use of the
name attributes for these
elements are always non-conforming. (Use of
the name attribute for
the a element is sometimes obsolete but conforming
according to HTML Standard.)
The img element
If the usemap attribute of the input
element is present, its value MUST be a
valid hash-name reference to a map element.
The usemap attribute of the
input element applies only to input elements
whose type attribute is in the
Image Button state.
If the longdesc
attribute of the frame, iframe, or
img element is present, its value MUST be a valid URL potentially surrounded by
spaces.
The composite attribute of the
img element [SAFARI] is a enumerated
attribute with the keyword source-over.
Image sources
If the dynsrc [MSDN],
lowsrc [DEVEDGE]
[MSDN], or vrml [MSDN] attribute of the img or
input element is present, its value MUST be a valid non-empty URL potentially
surrounded by spaces. The dynsrc, lowsrc, or vrml
attribute of the input element applies only to
input elements whose type attribute is in the Image Button state.
If the oversrc [SAFARI] attribute of
the img element is present, its value MUST be a valid non-empty URL potentially
surrounded by spaces.
The embed element
If the pluginpage [SAFARI], pluginspage, or pluginurl
attribute of the embed element [DEVEDGE] is present,
its value MUST be a valid URL potentially
surrounded by spaces.
The content model of
the noembed element
is text.
The object
and param elements
If the archive attribute of the
object element is present, its value MUST be a set of space-separated
tokens, each of which MUST be a
valid non-empty URL.
When a URL specified within
the archive attribute of the
object element is resolved, the URL obtained by resolving the value of the codebase attribute of the element,
if any, MUST be used as the base
URL.
If the classid attribute of an
object element is present, its value MUST be a valid non-empty URL potentially
surrounded by spaces and MUST be an
absolute URL.
If the code attribute of an
embed [SAFARI], or object element
is present, its MUST be a valid non-empty
URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
If the codebase attribute of an
object element is present,
its MUST be a valid non-empty URL
potentially surrounded by spaces.
If the codetype attribute of an
object element is present, its MUST be a valid MIME type. This
attribute SHOULD be presented if the element
has a classid attribute.
The declare attribute of the
object element is a boolean attribute.
If the standby attribute of the
object element is present, its value MAY be any string.
The palette attribute of the
embed element [DEVEDGE] is an enumerated
attribute with keywords foreground and background.
If the type
attribute of a param element is present, its value MUST be a valid MIME type.
The valuetype attribute of a
param element is an enumerated attribute
with keywords data, ref, and
object.
Audio and video
The start attribute of
the img or input element [MSDN] is an
enumerated attribute with keywords fileopen and mouseover. The start attribute of the input
element applies only to input elements whose type attribute is in the Image Button state. The attribute
MUST NOT be specified unless the element also
has the dynsrc attribute specified.
Frames
The frameset element
The content model of the frameset element is one or more frame
or frameset elements. Additionally, there can be a
noframes element in some
case.
A valid list of dimensions is a set of
comma-separated tokens, each of which MUST be one of a valid dimension
value, an optional valid non-negative integer
followed by a U+002A ASTERISK character
(*), or a U+002A ASTERISK character
(*).
If the cols or rows attribute of a frameset
element is present, its value MUST be a
valid list of dimensions.
The frame element
The content model of the frame
element is nothing.
If the src
attribute of a frame element is present, its value MUST be a valid non-empty URL potentially
surrounded by spaces.
If the name
attribute of a frame element is present, its value MUST be a valid browsing context
name.
The noresize attribute of
frame and iframe elements [MSDN] is
boolean attributes.
Frame borders
The frameborder attribute of a
frame, frameset, iframe, or
embed [DEVEDGE] element is an enumerated
attribute, with keywords 1, yes, 0, and no,
where keywords yes and no are
non‐conforming.
If the border attribute of a
frameset [DEVEDGE] or iframe element
[MSDN]
is present, its value MUST be a valid
non-negative integer.
The frame and frameset elements' bordercolor attribute values MUST be valid legacy color values.
If the framespacing attribute of
frame, frameset, or iframe
element [MSDN] is present, its value MUST be a valid non-negative
integer.
The noframes element
The content model of
the noframes element
is text.
The noframes element MAY be used as a child of the frameset
element. However, it MUST NOT have more than
one ancestor frameset elements.
Scripting
If the for
attribute of a script element is present, its value MUST be the ID of an element in the
same home subtree.
If the event attribute of a script
element is present, its value MAY be any
string.
The following attributes of HTML elements [MSDN] MUST be treated as event handler content
attributes:
onactivate,
onafterupdate,
onbeforeactivate,
onbeforecopy,
onbeforecut,
onbeforedeactivate,
onbeforeeditfocus,
onbeforepaste,
onbeforeupdate,
oncellchange,
oncontrolselect,
ondataavailable,
ondatasetchanged,
ondatasetcomplete,
ondeactivate,
onerrorupdate,
onfilterchange,
onfocusin,
onfocusout,
onhelp,
onlayoutcomplete,
onlosecapture,
onmouseenter,
onmouseleave,
onmove,
onmoveend,
onmovestart,
onpropertychange,
onresizeend,
onresizestart,
onrowenter,
onrowexit,
onrowsdelete,
onrowsinserted, and
onselectstart.
The following attributes of HTML elements [SAFARI] MUST be treated as event handler content
attributes:
ongesturechange,
ongestureend,
ongesturestart,
onorientationchange,
onsearch,
ontouchcancel,
ontouchend,
ontouchmove, and
ontouchstart.
Forms
If this specification says an attribute applies to certain states
of input or button elements, the attribute
MUST NOT be specified unless the attribute
applies to the element.
The wrap attribute of a textarea
element, for the purpose of conformance checking, MUST be treated as if there are additional
keywords: off, virtual, and
physical. However, these keywords are
non‐conforming.
The autocorrect attribute of
the input and textarea
elements [SAFARI]
are enumerated attribute with
keywords on and off.
The autocorrect attribute of
the
input element applies only
to input elements
whose type attribute
is in the
Text, Search, URL, E-mail, Telephone,
or Password
state.
The content model of the keygen
element is nothing.
If the precision attribute of an
input element [SAFARI] is present, its value MUST be given in one of the following forms: one or
more of characters in the range U+0030 DIGIT
ZERO (0) to U+0039 DIGIT NINE (9),
followed by keyword dp or sf,
keyword integer, or keyword float. The precision attribute of the
input element applies only to input elements
whose type attribute is in the
Number or Range state.
Autocomplete
If the autosave attribute of an
input element [SAFARI] is present, its value MAY be any string. The autosave attribute of the
input element applies only to input elements
whose type attribute is in the
Search state.
The incremental attribute of an
input element [SAFARI] is a boolean
attribute. The incremental attribute of the
input element applies only to input elements
whose type attribute is in the
Search state.
If the results attribute of an
input element [SAFARI] is present, its value MUST be a valid non-negative integer.
The results attribute of the
input element applies only to input elements
whose type attribute is in the
Search state.
The vcard_name attribute of the
input element is an enumerated attribute
with keywords
vCard.Business.City,
vCard.Business.Country,
vCard.Business.Fax,
vCard.Business.Phone,
vCard.Business.State,
vCard.Business.StreetAddress,
vCard.Business.URL,
vCard.Business.Zipcode,
vCard.Cellular,
vCard.Company,
vCard.Department,
vCard.DisplayName,
vCard.Email,
vCard.FirstName,
vCard.Gender,
vCard.Home.City,
vCard.Home.Country,
vCard.Home.Fax,
vCard.Home.Phone,
vCard.Home.State,
vCard.Home.StreetAddress,
vCard.Home.Zipcode,
vCard.Homepage,
vCard.JobTitle,
vCard.LastName,
vCard.MiddleName,
vCard.Notes,
vCard.Office, and
vCard.Pager.
The vcard_name attribute of
the input element applies only to input
elements whose type attribute is in
the Text, Search, Password, URL, E-mail, or Telephone state.
User interaction
The atomicselection attribute of an HTML element [MSDN] is an
enumerated attribute with keywords true and false.
The hidefocus
attribute of an HTML element [MSDN] is a
boolean attribute.
The unselectable attribute of an HTML element [MSDN] is an
enumerated attribute with keywords on
and off.
The disabled
attribute of an HTML element [MSDN] is a
boolean attribute.
The HTML Standard defines the (conforming) disabled attribute for several HTML
elements. This requirement does not (or in fact cannot)
override it in any way.