HTML pre tag

Example

Preformatted text:

<pre>
Text in a pre element
is displayed in a fixed-width
font, and it preserves
both spaces and
line breaks
</pre>

Definition and Usage

The <pre> tag defines preformatted text.

Text in a <pre> element is displayed in a fixed-width font, and the text preserves both spaces and line breaks. The text will be displayed exactly as written in the HTML source code.

Also look at:

Tag	Description
<code>	Defines a piece of computer code
<samp>	Defines sample output from a computer program
<kbd>	Defines keyboard input
<var>	Defines a variable

Browser Support

Element
<pre>	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Global Attributes

The <pre> tag also supports the Global Attributes in HTML.

Event Attributes

The <pre> tag also supports the Event Attributes in HTML.

More Examples

Example

How to create a pre-formatted text with a fixed width (with CSS):

<div style="width:200px;overflow:auto">
<pre>This is a pre with a fixed width. It will use as much space as specified.</pre>
</div>

Default CSS Settings

Most browsers will display the <pre> element with the following default values:

Example

pre {
display: block;
font-family: monospace;
white-space: pre;
margin: 1em 0;
}