Line Breaks and HR Tags

Sometimes you need to break text onto a new line or visually separate sections without starting a new paragraph. HTML gives you two tags for this.

Line Breaks: <br>

The <br> tag forces text onto a new line without creating a new paragraph:

<p>Roses are red,<br>
Violets are blue,<br>
HTML is awesome,<br>
And so are you.</p>

When to Use <br>

• Poems and song lyrics
• Addresses
• Short line-by-line content

When NOT to Use <br>

Never use multiple <br> tags for spacing. Use CSS margin or padding instead:

<!-- ❌ BAD -->
<p>Some text</p><br><br><br><p>More text</p>

<!-- ✅ GOOD (use CSS) -->
<p style="margin-bottom: 2rem;">Some text</p>
<p>More text</p>

Horizontal Rules: <hr>

The <hr> tag creates a horizontal line to visually separate sections:

<h2>Chapter 1</h2>
<p>Chapter one content...</p>
<hr>
<h2>Chapter 2</h2>
<p>Chapter two content...</p>

The <hr> represents a thematic break — a change in topic or section. Both <br> and <hr> are self-closing tags.