Block Quotes and Pull Quotes: Examples and Good Practices

Quotes are used to emphasize excerpts of text. Since users almost never read but scan we need to provide them with some focus anchors to fix their attention to the most important parts of our articles. Furthermore, quotes are always used for testimonials and sometimes for blog comments. They can be styled using graphics, CSS and a little bit of JavaScript. Sometimes, creative dynamic solutions can be applied as well.

Aren’t all these quotes the same?

No. First of all: quote ≠ block quote ≠ pull quote. Pull quotes are short excerpts from the presented text. They are used to pull a text passage out of the reader’s flow and give it a more dominant position in the post or the article.

Screenshot Pullquote
Pull quote included into an article. The pulled out passage is mentioned few blocks further.

Just like a pull quote blockquote (actually block quotations) are also set off from the main text as a distinct paragraph or block. However, they refer to some external citation which isn’t already mentioned in the article. Block quotations are usually placed within the reader’s flow.

Finally, “normal” quotes cite the content found in some other sources and are included to support the content rather than dominate over it.

Blockquote vs. Q vs. Cite

According to HTML specifications, there are three elements which are supposed to semantically mark up quotations, namely <blockquote>, <q> and <cite>. Although all intended to markup quotes, they should be used in different contexts. So when should you use what? HTML Dog provides a nice and compact overview of these elements:

<blockquote>

blockquote is a large quotation. The content of a blockquote
element must include block-level elements such as headings, lists, paragraphs
or div’s. This element can also have an optional attribute cite
that specifies the location (in the form of a URI) where the quote has come from. Example:

<blockquote cite=”http://www.htmldog.com/reference/htmltags/blockquote/”>

   <p>A large quotation. The content of a blockquote element must include 
   block-level elements such as headings, lists, paragraphs or div’s.</p>
   <p>cite can be used to specify the location (in the form of a URI) where 
   the quote has come from.</p>

</blockquote>

<q>

q is a small quotation. The content of this element is an in-line quote. Modern browsers know how to interpret <q> which is why you can style quotations using this HTML-elements via CSS. Example:

<p>Bob said <q>sexy pyjamas</q> but Chris said <q>a kimono</q></p>

Although <q> is almost never used, it has some useful properties. For instance, you can specify the appearance of quotes within the <q>-element via CSS. That’s reasonable as different languages use different quotation marks for the same purpose. For instance, these ones:

Q {}
Q { quotes: '»' '«'   }
Q { quotes: '„' '“' }

Modern browsers support this way of styling. Of course, Internet Explorer (even in its 8th version) doesn’t support it although it knows <q> pretty well. In particular, since some problems with encoding of quotes can appear sometimes it’s useful to provide numeric values (see below).

According to standards you can even specify the appearance of quotation marks depending on the browser’s language of the user. This is how a W3C-example looks like:

:lang(fr) > Q { quotes: '« ' ' »' }
:lang(de) > Q { quotes: '»'   '«' '2039' '203A' }

As pretty as they may be, pull quotes have inherent problems in the way they are placed in the middle of HTML content. To a visual, CSS enabled browser all might seem hunky-dory, but to those browsers that are not CSS-abled and fall back on the plain HTML or to screen readers for visually impaired users, the pull quotes will appear slap bang in the middle of the main content. A quote suddenly appearing between two paragraphs is clearly out of place and will confusingly break the flow.

If you are using pull-quotes, it is wise to provide a little extra information for users who would stumble on this problem. In the XHTML you can provide a message, hidden from view with CSS that reads something like "Start of pull-quote" before the quote and then "end quote" after it. You could even have a link similar to the "skip navigation" link, which would offer the user the ability to skip the pull-quote and continue to the main content.

<cite>

cite defines an in-line citation or reference to another source. Example:

<p>And <cite>Bob</cite> said <q>No, I think it’s a banana</q>.</p>

Summing up: for large quotes use blockquote, for small quotes use q and for references to another sources cite should be used. In practice, usually only blockquote and q are used.

 

 

Gallery of Pull Quotes and Citations

Quotes, braces, lines, dialogue boxes, balloons — there are a number of paths a designer can take to create a beautiful and memorable quote. Design solutions vary in colors, forms and sizes. Different techniques produce different result: however, it is important that it is clear to the visitors that the quote is actually a quote, otherwise it becomes easy to keep track on the content.

Keep in mind: pull quotes shouldn’t be used too often, they shouldn’t be too large and they shouldn’t be included for the wrong purposes. In most cases an ordinary article should have at most 1-2 pull quotes, otherwise they lose their appeal and the article becomes harder to scan.

Screenshot Pullquote

Take a look at the example above. 99designs uses a block quotation to emphasize what the site is about. However, the text put in the quotes actually isn’t a quotation. We do not know why quotation mark is used in this case. We do know, though, that they shouldn’t be used in this context.