<samp>: The Sample Output element - HTML

`Sample output including user input`

You can nest the element within a block to present an example that includes text entered by the user. For example, consider this text presenting a transcript of a Linux (or macOS) console session:

HTML html mike@interwebz:~$ md5 -s "Hello world" MD5 ("Hello world") = 3e25960a79dbc69b674cd4ec67a72c62 mike@interwebz:~$ █ Note the use of to allow customization of the appearance of specific portions of the sample text such as the shell prompts and the cursor. Note also the use of to represent the command the user entered at the prompt in the sample text. CSS The CSS that achieves the appearance we want is: css .prompt { color: #b00; } samp > kbd { font-weight: bold; } .cursor { color: #00b; } This gives the prompt and cursor fairly subtle colorization and emboldens the keyboard input within the sample text. Result The resulting output is this:

`Technical summary`

Content categories	Flow content, phrasing content, palpable content.
Permitted content	Phrasing content.
Tag omission	None, both the starting and ending tag are mandatory.
Permitted parents	Any element that accepts phrasing content.
Implicit ARIA role	`generic`
Permitted ARIA roles	Any
DOM interface	`HTMLElement`

`Specifications`

Specification
HTML # the-samp-element

`Browser compatibility`

See also Related elements: , , The element: a container for script-generated output Help improve MDN Was this page helpful to you? Learn how to contribute.This page was last modified on Apr 10, 2025 by MDN contributors. View this page on GitHub • Report a problem with this content