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Prose

Format a block of running text with consistent typography and spacing.


Default Prose

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75 characters (68ex) max-width: Yosemite National Park is set within California's Sierra Nevada mountains. It's famed for its giant, ancient sequoias, and for Tunnel View, the iconic vista of towering Bridalveil Fall and the granite cliffs of El Capitan and Half Dome.


Component Code

<section class="usa-prose">
  <p>
    Your content goes here. The usa-prose class automatically
    applies proper typography and spacing to child elements.
  </p>
</section>

Prose with Headings and Content

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Page heading

Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the border of North Carolina and Tennessee.

Section heading

Section of the page

The sprawling landscape encompasses lush forests and an abundance of wildflowers that bloom year-round. Streams, rivers and waterfalls appear along hiking routes that include a segment of the Appalachian Trail.

Subsection of the page

World renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains, and the quality of its remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture, this is America's most visited national park.

Right now scientists think that we only know about 17 percent of the plants and animals that live in the park, or about 17,000 species of a probable 100,000 different organisms.


Component Code

<section class="usa-prose">
  <h1>Page heading</h1>
  <p class="usa-intro">
    Introductory paragraph with larger text.
  </p>
  <h2>Section heading</h2>
  <h3>Section of the page</h3>
  <p>Body paragraph text.</p>
  <h4>Subsection of the page</h4>
  <p>More body text.</p>
</section>

Prose with Lists

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Unordered list

  • Unordered list item
  • Unordered list item
  • Unordered list item
    • Nested unordered list item
    • Nested unordered list item

Ordered list

  1. Ordered list item
  2. Ordered list item
    1. Nested ordered list item
    2. Nested ordered list item
  3. Ordered list item

Component Code

<section class="usa-prose">
  <ul>
    <li>Unordered list item</li>
    <li>Unordered list item</li>
    <li>
      Unordered list item
      <ul>
        <li>Nested unordered list item</li>
        <li>Nested unordered list item</li>
      </ul>
    </li>
  </ul>

  <ol>
    <li>Ordered list item</li>
    <li>
      Ordered list item
      <ol>
        <li>Nested ordered list item</li>
        <li>Nested ordered list item</li>
      </ol>
    </li>
    <li>Ordered list item</li>
  </ol>
</section>

Prose with Table

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Historical documents
Document title Description Year
Declaration of Independence Statement declaring independence from the British Empire. 1776
Bill of Rights The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution. 1791

Component Code

<section class="usa-prose">
  <table>
    <caption>Table caption</caption>
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th scope="col">Column header</th>
        <th scope="col">Column header</th>
        <th scope="col">Column header</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <th scope="row">Row header</th>
        <td>Cell data</td>
        <td>Cell data</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</section>


Guidance

When to use the prose component

Blocks of content from a CMS or markdown
Use usa-prose for blocks of text where it's more difficult to add custom classes to individual elements, like a blog post where the content is coming out of markdown or a CMS.

When to consider something else

Custom styled elements
If you need specific styles for individual elements, apply USWDS classes directly to those elements instead of using the prose container.

Usability guidance

Applies consistent styling
Adding usa-prose to any container adds USWDS default heading and body text styling to direct-child elements including headings (h1-h6), paragraphs (p), lists (ul, ol, li), and tables.
Customize line length
Customize line-length by changing the value of $theme-text-measure and $theme-lead-measure in your USWDS settings configuration.

Accessibility guidance

Maintains readability
The default max-width of 75 characters (68ex) helps maintain optimal line length for readability.
Proper heading hierarchy
Ensure your content uses a logical heading hierarchy (h1, h2, h3, etc.) for proper document structure.


Settings

Variable Description
$theme-text-measure

Sets the max-width for body text.
$theme-lead-measure

Sets the max-width for lead/intro text.
$theme-heading-margin-top

Margin above headings.
$theme-paragraph-margin-top

Margin above paragraphs.


Variants

This component has no variants.

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