HTML <rb> Tag

The HTML <rb> tag marks the base text component of a ruby annotation.

Ruby annotations are often used in East Asian typography.

Ruby (also spelt rubi) characters are small, annotative glosses that can be placed above or to the right of a Chinese character when writing logographic languages such as Chinese or Japanese to show the pronunciation. Ruby annotations, are usually used as a pronunciation guide for relatively obscure characters.

The <rb> element does not represent anything itself, but its parent <ruby> element uses it as part of determining what it represents.


The <rb> tag is written as <rb></rb> with the base text component inserted between the start and end tags.

Like this:

It is OK to omit the end tag is certain circumstances (see the "Omitting the End Tag" heading below). Like this:


Basic tag usage

Omitting the End Tag

An <rb> element's end tag may be omitted if the <rb> element is immediately followed by an <rb>, <rt>, <rtc> or <rp> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

Also, the <rt> element's end tag may be omitted if the <rt> element is immediately followed by an <rb>, <rt>, <rtc> or <rp> element, or if there is no more content in the parent element.

Therefore, the following example conforms to HTML5.

Explicit vs Implied Base

When the <rb> tag is not used, the base is implied. However, you can also make it explicit (by using the <rb> tag).

Therefore, the following code...

...has the same meaning as this...

The only difference between the above examples is that the base is explicit in the former, implied in the later. This makes the <rb> tag useful for styling, or when consecutive bases are to be treated as a group.




The <rb> element accepts the following attributes.

Element-Specific Attributes

This table shows the attributes that are specific to the <rb> tag/element.


Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML5 elements. Therefore, you can use these attributes with the <rb> tag , as well as with all other HTML tags.


Event Handler Content Attributes


Below are the standard HTML5 event handler content attributes.

Again, you can use any of these with the <rb> element, as well as any other HTML5 element.


Differences Between HTML 4 & HTML 5

The <rb> tag is new in HTML5 (W3C), however, it is not supported by the WHATWG HTML Living Standard.

For more detail on the element, see HTML5 <rb> Tag. Also check out the links to the official specifications below.




For more information on attributes for this tag, see HTML5 <rb> Tag.

Tag Details

For more details about the <rb> tag, see HTML5 <rb> Tag.


Here are the official specifications for the <rb> element.

What's the Difference?
