HTML area Tag

Example

An image-map, with clickable areas:

<img src="planets.gif" width="145"height="126" alt="Planets"
usemap="#planetmap">

<map name="planetmap">
  <area shape="rect"coords="0,0,82,126" href="sun.htm"alt="Sun">
  <area shape="circle"coords="90,58,3" href="mercur.htm"alt="Mercury">
  <area shape="circle"coords="124,58,8" href="venus.htm"alt="Venus">
</map>

Try it Yourself »

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Definition and Usage

The <area> tag defines an area inside an image-map (an image-map is an image with clickable areas).

The <area> element is always nested inside a <map> tag.

Note: The usemap attribute in the <img> tag is associated with the <map> element's name attribute, and creates a relationship between the image and the map.

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Browser Support

Element
<area>	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

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Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

HTML5 has some new attributes, and some HTML 4.01 attributes are no longer supported.

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Differences Between HTML and XHTML

In HTML the <area> tag has no end tag.

In XHTML the <area> tag must be properly closed.

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Attributes

= New in HTML5.

Attribute	Value	Description
alt	text	Specifies an alternate text for the area. Required if the href attribute is present
coords	coordinates	Specifies the coordinates of the area
download	filename	Specifies that the target will be downloaded when a user clicks on the hyperlink
href	URL	Specifies the hyperlink target for the area
hreflang	language_code	Specifies the language of the target URL
media	media query	Specifies what media/device the target URL is optimized for
nohref	value	Not supported in HTML5. Specifies that an area has no associated link
rel	alternate author bookmark help license next nofollow noreferrer prefetch prev search tag	Specifies the relationship between the current document and the target URL
shape	default rect circle poly	Specifies the shape of the area
target	_blank _parent _self _top framename	Specifies where to open the target URL
type	media_type	Specifies the media type of the target URL

Global Attributes

The <area> tag also supports the Global Attributes in HTML.

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Event Attributes

The <area> tag also supports the Event Attributes in HTML.

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Related Pages

HTML DOM reference: Area Object

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Default CSS Settings

Most browsers will display the <area> element with the following default values:

area { 
  display: none;}