DTB Comparison Chart
Note: Some elements have secondary elements within them. The top-level ones are called parent elements, and the secondary ones are called child elements. A child element can only appear within an allowed parent element. For example,
<li> is a child element of <list>; an <li> cannot appear outside of an <list>,
<h2> is a child element of <level2>; an <h2> cannot appear at <level1>.
items in pink = child elements
| Element | Description | Element Sets | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NIMAS v1.1 | ANSI/NISO Z39.86 2002 | DAISY/NISO Z39.86 2005 | ||
| NIMAS Baseline Element Set | ||||
| Document-Level Tags | ||||
| dtbook | The root element in the Digital Talking Book DTD. <dtbook> contains metadata in <head> and the contents of a work itself in <book>. | yes | yes | yes |
| head | Contains metainformation about a work but no actual content of the work itself, which is placed in <book>. This information is consonant with the <head> information in XHTML (see XHTML11STRICT). Other miscellaneous elements can occur before and after the required <title>. | yes | yes | yes |
| book | Surrounds the actual content of a document, which is divided into <frontmatter>, <bodymatter>, and <rearmatter>. <head>, which contains metadata, precedes <book>. | yes | yes | yes |
| meta | Indicates metadata about a book. It is an empty element that may appear repeatedly only in <head>. | yes | yes | yes |
| title | Contains the title of a work but is used only as metainformation in <head>. Use <doctitle> within <book> for an actual book title, which will usually be the same. | yes | yes | yes |
| Structure & Hierarchy Tags | ||||
| frontmatter | Usually contains <doctitle> and <docauthor>, as well as preliminary material that is often enclosed in appropriate <level> or <level1>. Content may include a copyright notice, foreword, acknowledgments, table of contents, etc. <frontmatter> serves as a guide to the content and nature of a <book>. | yes | yes | yes |
| bodymatter | Consists of the text proper of a book, as contrasted with preliminary material <frontmatter> or supplementary information in <rearmatter>. | yes | yes | yes |
| rearmatter | Contains supplementary material such as appendices, glossaries, bibliographies, and indices. It follows the <bodymatter> of the book. | yes | yes | yes |
| level1 | The highest-level container of major divisions of a book. Used in <frontmatter>, <bodymatter>, and <rearmatter> to mark the largest divisions of a book (usually parts or chapters), inside which level2 subdivisions (often sections) may nest. A class attribute identifies the actual name (e.g., part, chapter) of the structure it marks. Contrast with <level>. | yes | yes | yes |
| level2 | Contains subdivisions that nest within <level1> divisions. Class attributes identify actual names (e.g., subpart, chapter, subsection) of the structure it marks. | yes | yes | yes |
| level3 | Contains sub-subdivisions that nest within <level2> subdivisions (e.g., sub-subsections within subsections). Class attributes identify actual names (e.g., section, subpart, subsubsection) of subordinate structure it marks. | yes | yes | yes |
| level4 | Contains further subdivisions that nest within <level3> subdivisions. A class attribute identifies the actual name of the subordinate structure it marks. | yes | yes | yes |
| level5 | Contains further subdivisions that nest within <level4> subdivisions. A class attribute identifies the actual name of the subordinate structure it marks. | yes | yes | yes |
| level6 | Contains further subdivisions that nest within <level5> subdivisions. A class attribute identifies the actual name of the subordinate structure it marks. | yes | yes | yes |
| h1 | Contains the text of a heading for a <level1> structure. | yes | yes | yes |
| h2 | Contains the text of a heading for a <level2> structure. | yes | yes | yes |
| h3 | Contains the text of a heading for a <level3> structure. | yes | yes | yes |
| h4 | Contains the text of a heading for a <level4> structure. | yes | yes | yes |
| h5 | Contains the text of a heading for a <level5> structure. | yes | yes | yes |
| h6 | Contains the text of a heading for a <level6> structure. | yes | yes | yes |
| Block Elements | not permitted as child of front-, body-, or rearmatter | |||
| author | Identifies the writer of a work other than this one. Contrast with <docauthor>, which identifies the author of this work. Typically occurs within <blockquote>. | yes | yes | yes |
| blockquote | Indicates a block of quoted content that is set off from surrounding text by paragraph breaks. Compare with <q>, which marks short, inline quotations. | yes | yes | yes |
| list | Contains a list, ordered or unordered. The list may have an intermixed heading <hd> (generally only one, possibly with <prodnote>) and an intermixture of list items <li> and <pagenum>. If bullets and outline enumerations are part of print content, they are expected to prefix those list items in content, rather than be implicitly generated. | yes | yes | yes |
| li | Marks each list item in a <list>. <li> content may be either inline or block and may include other nested lists. Alternatively, it may contain a sequence of list item components, <lic>, that identify regularly occurring content, such as the heading and page number of each entry in a table of contents. | yes | yes | yes |
| lic | ("List item component") allows ordered sub-structure within a list item <li>. Used when a list item is made up of two or more components, as in a table of contents entry. The same number of <lic>s should occur in each <li> in a list. If not, correspondence of <lic> in different <li> is in order of occurrence for the current writing direction of the <li>. | optional | yes | yes |
| hd | Marks the text of a heading in a <list> or <sidebar>. | yes | yes | yes |
| note | Marks a footnote, endnote, etc. Any local reference to <note id="yyy"> is by <noteref idref="#yyy">. | yes | yes | yes |
| p | Contains a paragraph, which may contain subsidiary <list> or <dl> content. | yes | yes | yes |
| sidebar | Contains information supplementary to main text and/or narrative flow and often boxed/printed apart from the main area of a page. May have a heading. | yes | yes | yes; must include render attribute w/required or optional noted |
| cite | Marks a reference (or citation) to another document. | yes | yes | yes |
| dd | Marks a definition of a preceding term <dt> within a definition list <dl>. A definition without a preceding <dt> has no semantic interpretation, but is visually presented aligned with other <dd>. | yes | yes | yes |
| dl | Contains a definition list, usually consisting of pairs of terms <dt> and definitions <dd>. Any definition can contain another definition list. | yes | yes | yes |
| dt | Marks a term in a definition list <dl> for which a definition <dd> follows. | yes | yes | yes |
| Inline Elements | ||||
| em | Indicates emphasis. Usually <em> is rendered in italics. Compare with <strong>. | yes | yes | yes |
| q | Contains a short, inline quotation. Compare with <blockquote>, which marks a longer quotation set off from surrounding text. | yes | yes | yes |
| strong | Marks stronger emphasis than <em>. Visually, <strong> is usually rendered in bold. | yes | yes | yes |
| sub | Indicates a subscript character (printed below a character's normal baseline). Can be used recursively and/or intermixed with <sup>. | yes | yes | yes |
| sup | Marks a superscript character (printed above a character's normal baseline). Can be used recursively and/or intermixed with <sub>. | yes | yes | yes |
| br | Marks a forced line break. | yes | yes | yes |
| line | Marks a single, logical line of text. Often used in conjunction with <linenum> in documents with numbered lines. Use when line breaks must be preserved to capture meaning (e.g., poems, legal texts). | yes | yes | yes |
| linenum | Contains a line number (for example, in legal text). Use with <line>, for lines numbered in print work. | yes | yes | yes |
| pagenum | Contains one page number as it appears in a print document, usually inserted at the point within the file immediately preceding the first item of content on a new page. [Valid only when an id attribute is included]. | yes | yes | yes |
| noteref | Marks one or more characters that reference a footnote or endnote <note>. Contrast with <annoref>. <noteref> and <note> are independently skippable. | yes | yes | yes |
| Tables | ||||
| table | Contains cells of tabular data arranged in rows and columns. A <table> may have a <caption>. It may have descriptions of its columns in <col>s or groupings of several <col>s in <colgroup>. A simple <table> may be made up of just rows <tr>. A long table crossing several pages of a print work should have separate <pagenum> values for each of the pages containing that <table>, indicated on the page where it starts or re-starts. Note the logical order of optional <thead>, optional <tfoot>, then one or more of either <tbody> or just rows <tr>. This order accommodates simple or large, complex tables. <thead> and <tfoot> information usually helps identify the content of <tbody> rows. For a multiple-page <table>, <thead> and <tfoot> are repeated, but not redundantly tagged. | yes | yes | yes |
| td | Indicates a table cell containing data. | yes | yes | yes |
| tr | Marks one row of a <table> containing <th> or <td> cells. | yes | yes | yes |
| thead | Marks header information in a <table>, consisting of one or more rows <tr> of <th> cells. Use <thead> to duplicate headers when breaking a table across page boundaries, or for static headers when <tbody> sections are rendered in a scrolling panel. | optional | yes | yes |
| tfoot | Marks footer information in a <table>, consisting of one or more rows <tr>, usually of <th> cells. Use <tfoot> to duplicate footers when breaking a table across page boundaries, or for static footers when <tbody> sections are rendered in a scrolling panel. | optional | yes | yes |
| tbody | Marks a group of rows in the main body of a <table>. If a <table> is divided into several sections, each consisting of a number of rows, each section would be separately tagged with <tbody>. The same <thead> and <tfoot> apply to every <tbody> section. Use multiple <tbody> sections when rules are needed between groups of table rows. | optional | yes | yes |
| colgroup | Groups adjacent <col>s that are semantically related. | optional | yes | yes |
| col | Marks one column of a table. | optional | yes | yes |
| th | Indicates a table cell containing header information. | optional | yes | yes |
| caption | Describes a <table> or <img>. If used with <table> it must follow immediately after the <table> start tag. If used with <img> or <imggroup> it is not so constrained. | yes | yes | yes |
| Images | ||||
| imggroup | Provides a container for one or more <img>(s) and associated <caption>(s) and <prodnote>(s). A <prodnote> may contain a long description of an image. The content model allows-1) multiple <img>s if they share a caption, with the ids of each <img> in the <caption imgref="id1 id2 ...">, 2) multiple <caption>s if several captions refer to a single <img id="xxx"> where each caption has the same <caption imgref="xxx">, 3) multiple <prodnote>s if different versions are needed for different media (e.g., large print, Braille, or print). If several <prodnote>s refer to a single <img id="xxx">, each prodnote has the same <prodnote imgref="xxx">. | yes | yes | yes |
| caption | Describes a <table> or <img>. If used with <table> it must follow immediately after the <table> start tag. If used with <img> or <imggroup> it is not so constrained. | yes | yes | yes |
| Optional Elements | ||||
| a | Contains an anchor, which is used to reference another location, usually within the same or another <dtbook>. | optional | yes | yes; external attribute added w/true or false |
| abbr | Designates an abbreviation, a shortened form of a word. Examples: Mr., approx., lbs., rec'd. Contrast with <acronym>. | optional | yes | yes |
| acronym | Marks a word formed from key letters (usually initials) of a group of words. For examples: UNESCO, NATO, XML, US. Contrast with <abbr>. | optional | yes | yes |
| address | Contains contact information (e.g., for a person or an agency). By use of <line> to contain content of individual lines, a class attribute can be used to identify the content of that <line>. For example, class values might include the following: name, address, region (state, province, etc.), country, location code (such as zip code, provincial code), phone, fax, email, etc. | optional | yes | yes |
| annoref | Marks a text segment that references an <annotation>. Each <annoref> is usually a word, phrase, or whole line that is part of surrounding text (identified in original print work by bold, italics, etc.). It should not normally be allowed to be turned off in a DTB application. | optional | yes | yes |
| annotation | A comment on or an explanation of a portion of a printed work. It differs from <note> in that an <annotation> is usually set in a margin or on a facing page, often with no explicit reference to it inserted in the text. Any local reference to <annotation id="xxx"> is by <annoref idref="#xxx">. | optional | yes | yes |
| bdo | Used in special cases where automatic actions of the bi-directional algorithm would result in incorrect display. | optional | yes | yes |
| code | Designates a fragment of computer code. | optional | yes | yes |
| col | Marks one column of a table. | optional | yes | yes |
| colgroup | Groups adjacent <col>s that are semantically related. | optional | yes | yes |
| dfn | Marks the first occurrence of a word or term that is defined or explained there or elsewhere in <book>. Often <dfn> is rendered in italics, sometimes in parentheses. | optional | yes | yes |
| div | A generic container for subdivisions of a work. The <level1> ... <level6> hierarchy, or the <level> tag used recursively, should mark major hierarchical structures of a work, while <div> is used in less formal circumstances or when, for production purposes, a structure should be treated differently. Compare with <span>, which is used in inline settings. | optional | yes | yes; div must be w/in <level> or <level1> ... <level6> |
| docauthor | Marks each author or editor of this work. Compare with <author>, used to mark the author of another work, within <blockquote> or <cite>. | optional | yes | yes |
| doctitle | Marks the title of a work within <frontmatter>. By convention, <doctitle> should appear only once. Contrast with <title>, which occurs as metadata in <head> yet whose content is generally the same. | optional | yes | yes |
| hr | An empty element, minimally <hr/>, indicating a horizontal rule (line). It may be used to indicate a break in text where only blank lines, a row of asterisks, a horizontal line, etc., are used in a print work. | deleted | yes | deleted |
| img | Marks a visual image. An <img> will always contain an alt and generally contain a longdesc (a pointer to a related <prodnote>). An <img> may be referenced by a <caption> or <prodnote>, using, for example, the form <caption imgref="#yyy">caption text here</caption> for the <img id="yyy">. | yes | yes | yes |
| kbd | Designates information that a user is to input directly into a computer using a keyboard. | optional | yes | yes |
| level | An alternative tag for marking major structures in a work. It may be used recursively, i.e., repeated indefinitely with each successive occurrence nesting within a previous occurence. It may also be included in a subsequent higher level. Subordinate levels have greater depth. Contrast with the explicit <level1>...<level6> elements, which may not be intermixed with <level>. | optional | yes | yes |
| levelhd | Contains the text of a heading within <level>. Corresponds to <h1> through <h6> used in <level1> through <level6>, but cannot be intermixed with those tags. | deleted | yes | deleted |
| lic | ("List item component") allows ordered substructure within a list item <li>. Used when a list item is made up of two or more components, as in a table of contents entry. The same number of <lic>s should occur in each <li>. If not, correspondence of <lic> in different <li> is in order of occurrence for the current writing direction of the <li>. | optional | yes | yes |
| link | An empty element appearing in the <head> section of a document that establishes a connection between the current document and another document. The <link> element conveys relationship information (for example, "next" and "previous") that may be rendered by user agents in a variety of ways. | optional | yes | yes |
| notice | Contains a warning, caution, or other type of admonition normally found in the margin of a book. In contrast with <sidebar>, a <notice> must be presented at a specific location within the text. Its presentation is not optional. | deleted | yes | deleted |
| prodnote | Contains language added to an alternative-format version by a producer; commonly used to provide descriptions of one or more visual elements such as charts, graphs, etc.; to supply operating instructions; to describe differences between a print work and its audio version. | optional | yes | yes; must include render attribute w/required or optional noted |
| samp | Contains a sample of work created by the author for use as an example or template. For example, a sample business letter, résumé, computer program output, or form. | optional | yes | yes |
| sent | Marks a sentence. | optional | yes | yes |
| span | A generic container for use in inline settings when no specific tag exists for a given situation. A class attribute may describe the nature of the text it marks (e.g., a typographical error). May be used to mark a class of items to which styles are to be applied. Compare with <div>, which is used in block settings. | optional | yes | yes |
| style | Provides the means to include styling information that applies to a work. It may appear only in <head>. It may include CDATA sections. | deleted | yes | deleted |
| tbody | Marks a group of rows in the main body of a <table>. If a <table> is divided into several sections, each consisting of a number of rows, each section would be separately tagged with <tbody>. The same <thead> and <tfoot> apply to every <tbody> section. Use multiple <tbody> sections when rules (lines) are needed between groups of table rows. | optional | yes | yes |
| tfoot | Marks footer information in a <table> consisting of one or more rows <tr>, usually of <th> cells. Use <tfoot> to duplicate footers when breaking a table across page boundaries, or for static footers when <tbody> sections are rendered in a scrolling panel. | optional | yes | yes |
| th | Indicates a table cell containing header information. | optional | yes | yes |
| thead | Marks header information in a <table> consisting of one or more rows <tr> of <th> cells. Use <thead> to duplicate headers when breaking a table across page boundaries, or for static headers when <tbody> sections are rendered in a scrolling panel. | optional | yes | yes |
| w | Marks a word. | optional | yes | yes |
| NEW DAISY/NISO Z39.86 2005 | ||||
| bridgehead | A free-floating header that is not associated with the hierarchical structure of a document. It may occur only as a subsidiary to one of the hierarchic elements. <hd> and <h1> ... <h6> are restricted to one occurrence per level or with corresponding <level1> ... <level6> tags, respectively. <bridgehead> has no such restriction, but should be used only when it is clear that no other structural headings are appropriate. See also <hd>. | optional | no | yes |
| byline | Contains information about the creator of or contributor to a work. | optional | no | yes |
| covertitle | A short title of a work, often found on the spine of a print book. It may be the same as the work's <doctitle>. | optional | no | yes |
| dateline | Contains information about the time and/or place at which a work was authored. | optional | no | yes |
| epigraph | Marks a quotation placed at the beginning of a work or a division of a work. | optional | no | yes |
| linegroup | Provides means to group a set of lines of a <poem>. | optional | no | yes |
| poem | A complete <poem> or fragment thereof. | optional | no | yes |