HTML - Heading elements

Heading elements implement six levels of document headings, <h1> is the most important and <h6> is the least. A heading element briefly describes the topic of the section it introduces. Heading information may be used by user agents, for example, to construct a table of contents for a document automatically.

Examples

All headings

The following code shows all the heading levels, in use.

HTML
<h1>Heading level 1</h1>
<h2>Heading level 2</h2>
<h3>Heading level 3</h3>
<h4>Heading level 4</h4>
<h5>Heading level 5</h5>
<h6>Heading level 6</h6>

Here is the result of this code:

Example page

The following code shows a few headings with some content under them.

HTML
<h1>Heading elements</h1>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>Some text here...</p>

<h2>Examples</h2>
<h3>Example 1</h3>
<p>Some text here...</p>

<h3>Example 2</h3>
<p>Some text here...</p>

<h2>See also</h2>
<p>Some text here...</p>

Here is the result of this code:

Description  

Heading elements implement six levels of document headings, <h1> is the most important and <h6> is the least. A heading element briefly describes the topic of the section it introduces. Heading information may be used by user agents, for example, to construct a table of contents for a document automatically.

Usage note:

  • Do not use lower levels to decrease heading font size: use the CSS font-size property instead.
  • Avoid skipping heading levels: always start from <h1>, next use <h2> and so on.
  • With the <section> element, you should consider avoiding using <h1> more than once on a page; by convention, it's used for the page's displayed title, with all headings below starting with <h2>. When using sections, you should use one <h1> per section. See "Defining sections" in Using HTML sections and outlines for more information.
Content categories Flow content, heading content, palpable content.
Permitted content Phrasing content.
Tag omission None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parent elements Any element that accepts flow content; don't use as a child of <hgroup> element, it is now deprecated
DOM interface HTMLHeadingElement

Browser Compatibility  

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support (Yes) 1.0 (1.7 or earlier) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)
Feature Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Mobile Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support (Yes) 1.0 (1.0) (Yes) (Yes) (Yes)

See Also  

Specifications  

Specification Status Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard
The definition of '<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>' in that specification.		 Living Standard  
HTML5
The definition of '<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>' in that specification.		 Recommendation  
HTML 4.01 Specification
The definition of '<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6>' in that specification.		 Recommendation  

License

© 2016 Mozilla Contributors
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License v2.5 or later.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-us/docs/web/html/element/heading_elements

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