<samp>: The Sample Output element
Baseline Widely available
This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.
The <samp>
HTML element is used to enclose inline text which represents sample (or quoted) output from a computer program. Its contents are typically rendered using the browser's default monospaced font (such as Courier or Lucida Console).
Try it
Attributes
This element only includes the global attributes.
Usage notes
You can use a CSS rule to override the browser's default font face for the <samp>
element; however, it's possible that the browser's preferences may take precedence over any CSS you specify.
The CSS to override the default font face would look like this:
samp {
font-family: "Courier";
}
Note: If you need an element which will serve as a container for output generated by your website or app's JavaScript code, you should instead use the <output>
element.
Examples
Basic example
In this simple example, a paragraph includes an example of the output of a program.
<p>
When the process is complete, the utility will output the text
<samp>Scan complete. Found <em>N</em> results.</samp> You can then proceed to
the next step.
</p>
Result
Sample output including user input
You can nest the <kbd>
element within a <samp>
block to present an example that includes text entered by the user. For example, consider this text presenting a transcript of a Linux (or macOS) console session:
HTML
<pre>
<samp><span class="prompt">mike@interwebz:~$</span> <kbd>md5 -s "Hello world"</kbd>
MD5 ("Hello world") = 3e25960a79dbc69b674cd4ec67a72c62
<span class="prompt">mike@interwebz:~$</span> <span class="cursor">█</span></samp></pre>
Note the use of <span>
to allow customization of the appearance of specific portions of the sample text such as the shell prompts and the cursor. Note also the use of <kbd>
to represent the command the user entered at the prompt in the sample text.
CSS
The CSS that achieves the appearance we want is:
.prompt {
color: #b00;
}
samp > kbd {
font-weight: bold;
}
.cursor {
color: #00b;
}
This gives the prompt and cursor fairly subtle colorization and emboldens the keyboard input within the sample text.
Result
The resulting output is this:
Technical summary
Content categories | Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content. |
---|---|
Permitted content | Phrasing content. |
Tag omission | None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory. |
Permitted parents | Any element that accepts phrasing content. |
Implicit ARIA role | generic |
Permitted ARIA roles | Any |
DOM interface | HTMLElement |
Specifications
Specification |
---|
HTML Standard # the-samp-element |
Browser compatibility
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