What Is a "pre" Tag/Element?

A pre element is a block level element that can be used directly as a sub-element in the body element. You can use pre elements to specify blocks of pre-formatted text with white space characters preserved. Here are basic rules about pre elements:

• "pre" elements are mixed content elements.
• "pre" elements can have empty contents.
• "pre" elements can have PCDATA as contents.
• "pre" elements can have in-line elements as contents.
• "pre" elements can not have block elements as contents.
• "pre" elements are block elements. They can not be used as in-line elements.
• "pre" elements will be displayed by browsers without line wrapping. So long lines in the document will be displayed as long lines.
• "pre" elements will be displayed in monospacing fonts in browsers by default.
• "pre" elements preserve white space characters.

Here is a good example of pre elements:

<body>
<pre>
     1
    1 1
   1 2 1
  1 3 3 1
 1 4 6 4 1
</pre>
</body>

⇒ Tab Characters in HTML 'pre' Element

⇐ Incorrect HTML 'p' Elements

⇑ HTML Body Tag and Block Level Tags

⇑⇑ HTML Tutorials