HTML <rt> Tag

The HTML <rt> tag marks the ruby 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.

Syntax

The <rt> tag is written as <rt></rt> with the ruby text inserted between the start and end tags.

Like this:

Examples

Basic Ruby Annotation

Here's an example of using the <rt> tag to present ruby text within a ruby annotation.

Omitting the End Tag

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.

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.

Therefore, the following example conforms to HTML5.

Fallback Content

You can use the <rp> element to provide fallback content for those browsers/user agents that don't support ruby annotations.

Like this:

Attributes

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

The <rt> 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 <rt> 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.