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.

Syntax

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:

Examples

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.

Attributes

Attributes can be added to an HTML element to provide more information about how the element should appear or behave.

The <rb> element accepts the following attributes.

AttributeDescription
none 

Global Attributes

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

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handlers

Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.

Most event handler content attributes can be used on all HTML elements, but some event handlers have specific rules around when they can be used and which elements they are applicable to.

For more detail, see HTML event handler content attributes.