1

It is now widely preferred to use <em> instead of <i> and also <strong> instead of <b> for various reasons; the most important one being their accessibility1.

Is there a similar equivalent for <u>?

Related:

1. When a text-reader comes along text marked with <i> it does not read it with an emphasis unlike <em> and likewise for <b> and <strong>; they are merely displayed with emphasis.

BoltClock
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Möoz
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    Underlined text is presentational, `` has no semantic meaning. `` (http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/text-level-semantics.html#the-strong-element) and `` (http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/text-level-semantics.html#the-em-element) do have semantic meaning, how they look presentationally is totally up to you. – Josh Davenport-Smith May 20 '14 at 02:12
  • The question asks for an “equivalent for ``” without specifying what that might mean—and the question seems to be based on a wrong assumption about `` and `` being equivalents for other elements. – Jukka K. Korpela May 20 '14 at 05:46

2 Answers2

8

There isn't one. em and strong aren't replacements for i and b; they are supposed to be used in different contexts. (See this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/271776/436282)

Although it's true that using <u> is somewhat archaic (though still acceptable); it's best to use text-decoration: underline in your CSS instead.

Community
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Andrew
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1

I guess you'd use either <strong> or <em> and then CSS to style it to display it underlined.

Thilo
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