The <blockquote> tag is used to define long quotes inside the document. Browsers usually indent <blockquote> elements.
A URL for the quotation source can be given with the cite attribute, whereas a text display of the source can be given with the <cite> element.
This is a block-level element and can include tags for text formatting.
The <blockquote> tag is placed within the <body> tag.
You can use the margin-right and/or margin-left properties, or the margin shorthand property to change indentation applied to the quoted text.
For short quotes in a document, use the <q> tag.
The <blockquote> tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening (<blockquote>) and closing (</blockquote>) tags.
Example of the HTML <blockquote> tag:
<!DOCTYPE html><html> <head> <title>Title of the document</title> </head> <body> A quote from the Cheshire Cat, in the popular children's book, Alice In Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll <blockquote cite="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland"> I'm not crazy, my reality is just different than yours. </blockquote> </body></html>Result
Example of the HTML <blockquote> tag used with the <q> tag:
<!DOCTYPE html><html> <head> <title>Title of the document</title> </head> <body> <p> A quote from the Cheshire Cat, in the popular children's book, Alice In Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll</p> <blockquote cite="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland"> I'm not crazy, my reality is just different than yours. </blockquote> <q cite="https://www.wikiquote.org/">He who can, does, he who cannot, teaches.</q> </body></html>Attributes
| Attribute | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| cite | URL | Specifies the source of the quote. The value can be either a relative or an absolute URL. |
The <blockquote> also supports the Global Attributes and the Event Attributes.
How to style <blockquote> tag?
Common properties to alter the visual weight/emphasis/size of text in <blockquote> tag:
- CSS font-style property sets the style of the font. normal | italic | oblique | initial | inherit.
- CSS font-family property specifies a prioritized list of one or more font family names and/or generic family names for the selected element.
- CSS font-size property sets the size of the font.
- CSS font-weight property defines whether the font should be bold or thick.
- CSS text-transform property controls text case and capitalization.
- CSS text-decoration property specifies the decoration added to text, and is a shorthand property for text-decoration-line, text-decoration-color, text-decoration-style.
Coloring text in <blockquote> tag:
- CSS color property describes the color of the text content and text decorations.
- CSS background-color property sets the background color of an element.
Text layout styles for <blockquote> tag:
- CSS text-indent property specifies the indentation of the first line in a text block.
- CSS text-overflow property specifies how overflowed content that is not displayed should be signalled to the user.
- CSS white-space property specifies how white-space inside an element is handled.
- CSS word-break property specifies where the lines should be broken.
Other properties worth looking at for <blockquote> tag:
- CSS text-shadow property adds shadow to text.
- CSS text-align-last property sets the alignment of the last line of the text.
- CSS line-height property specifies the height of a line.
- CSS letter-spacing property defines the spaces between letters/characters in a text.
- CSS word-spacing property sets the spacing between words.
