HTML <footer> Tag

The HTML <footer> tag represents the footer of an HTML document or a section within the document.

Footers typically contain information such as the author of the document, copyright information, links to terms of use, privacy policy, etc.

Syntax

The <footer> tag is written as <footer></footer> with the footer content inserted between the start and end tags.

Like this:

The <footer> tag can be placed anywhwere that "flow content" is expected (typically anywhwere within the body of the document), however, cannot be placed within a <header> or another <footer> element, and it cannot contain a <header> element.

Examples

Basic tag usage

Here's an example of the <footer> tag being used to markup the footer of a whole document.

Footer at Top of Document

The <footer> tag doesn't necessarily need to appear at the bottom of the document (although this is probably the most common usage).

Here's an example of placing the <footer> tag near the top of the document.

Multiple <footer> Elements

A document can have multiple <footer> elements. Here's an example of a document with two footers (one at the top and one at the bottom).

Section Footers

Just as a whole document can contain <footer> elements, so can each section within a document.

Here, we have two <article> elements that contain their own respective footers. The document itself has its own separate footer.

Addresses

Footers often contain contact information for the document's author. Contact information within a <footer> tag should be marked up using the <address> tag.

Attributes

Attributes can be added to an HTML element to provide more information about how the element should appear or behave.

There are 3 kinds of attributes that you can add to your HTML tags: Element-specific, global, and event handler content attributes.

The <footer> element accepts the following attributes.

Element-Specific Attributes

This table shows the attributes that are specific to the <footer> tag/element.

AttributeDescription
None 

Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML5 elements. Therefore, you can use these attributes with the <footer> tag , as well as with all other HTML tags.

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handler Content Attributes

Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.

Below are the standard HTML5 event handler content attributes.

Again, you can use any of these with the <footer> element, as well as any other HTML5 element.

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 event handler content attributes.

Differences Between HTML 4 & HTML 5

The <footer> element was introduced in HTML5.

For more detail on the element, see HTML5 <footer> Tag. Also check out the links to the official specifications below.

Template

Here's a template for the <footer> tag with all available attributes for the tag (based on HTML5). These are grouped into attribute types, each type separated by a space. In many cases, you will probably only need one or two (if any) attributes. Simply remove the attributes you don't need.

For more information on attributes for this tag, see HTML5 <footer> Tag.

Tag Details

For more details about the <footer> tag, see HTML5 <footer> Tag.

Specifications

Here are the official specifications for the <footer> element.

What's the Difference?

W3C creates "snapshot" specifications that don't change once defined. So the HTML5 specification won't change once it becomes an official recommendation. WHATWG on the other hand, develops a "living standard" that is updated on a regular basis. In general, you will probably find that the HTML living standard will be more closely aligned to the current W3C draft than to the HTML5 specification.