<marquee> html tag usage/replacment

Baruch picture Baruch · Dec 12, 2010 · Viewed 8.8k times · Source

I know that <marquee> tags are evil.
If it is so bad to have scrolling text, then using JS to get the same effect doesn't make it any better, right?

And suppose I decided to have some scrolling text (gasp), is there some type of CSS(3?) or HTML(5?) way to do this that is technically correct (i.e. not deprecated)?

If there isn't a CSS/HTML solution, should I use:

  • Javascript, which will be heavier to download and might be turned off (is that a pro or a con?), but I get the bonus of being W3C correct and valid and non-deprecated and smart,

or should I use

  • the hated <marquee> (<blink><blink>) tag, which is lightweight (19 bytes!), fully supported by all browsers in all rendering modes and all doctypes (even though it shouldn't be), but is deprecated?

Thanks.

P.S. I think a news ticker is a valid use for marquee-style
P.P.S. If anybody tells me that if I don't want a heavy Javascript solution I should use JQuery because it is lightweight, I will shoot them in the comments

Edit: I'm adding JQuery tag since that seems to be the best way to get attention from a lot of experts on JS questions, and it is not totally unrelated here.

Answer

Henrik picture Henrik · Dec 12, 2010

It is not the effect that is bad. The problem with marquee, blink and font tags is that they convey presentation not structure of your content.