From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)

HTML Paragraphs

HTML documents are divided into paragraphs.

HTML Paragraphs

Paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag.

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is another paragraph</p>

Note: Browsers automatically adds an empty line before and after paragraphs.

Try it yourself

Don't Forget the End Tag

Most browsers will display HTML correctly even if you forget the end tag:

<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is another paragraph

Try it yourself

The example above will work in most browsers, but don't rely on it. Forgetting the end tag can produce unexpected results or errors.

Note: Future version of HTML will not allow you to skip end tags.

HTML Line Breaks

Use the <br /> tag if you want a line break (a new line) without starting a new paragraph:

<p>This is<br />a para<br />graph with line breaks</p>

Try it yourself

The <br /> tag is an empty tag. It has no end tag like </br>.

You can read more about empty HTML tags in the next chapters of this tutorial.

<br> or <br />

In XHTML, XML, and future versions of HTML, tags with no end tags (closing tags) are not allowed.

Even if <br> works in all browsers, writing <br /> instead is more future proof.

HTML Rules (Lines)

The <hr /> tag is used to create an horizontal rule (line).

Example:

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<hr />
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<hr />
<p>This is a paragraph</p>

Try it yourself

HTML Output - Useful Tips

You cannot be sure how HTML will be displayed. Large or small screens, and resized windows will create different results.

With HTML, you cannot change the output by adding extra spaces or extra lines in your HTML code.

The browser will remove extra spaces and extra lines when the page is displayed. Any number of lines count as one space, and any number of spaces count as one space.

Try it yourself  (The example demonstrates some HTML formatting problems)

Examples From This Page

HTML paragraphs
This example demonstrates how HTML paragraphs are displayed in a browser.

Line breaks
This example demonstrates the use of line breaks in an HTML document.

Horizontal rule
This example demonstrates how to insert a horizontal rule.

Poem problems
This example demonstrates some problems with HTML formatting.

More Examples

More paragraphs
This example demonstrates some of the default behaviors of paragraph elements.

HTML Tag Reference

When you lookup W3Schools' tag reference, you will see additional information about tags and their attributes.

You will learn more about HTML tag attributes in the next chapters of this tutorial.

From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)