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Apple News Format gains HTML text formatting for expanded content support

Apple has sent out emails today to Apple News Publishers letting them know that they can now use HTML text formatting to more easily translate their web content into the Apple News Format. Instead of having to rely on Markdown formatting or other formatting types, the HTML support should make it easier for plugin developers and publishers to get their content onto Apple News even faster. Apple provided a list of newly supported HTML markup and tags in the email, and can be seen after the jump.

Today’s update also means that Apple News publishers will need to confirm that their JSON files sent to News Publisher are configured with the new format ‘html’ property to take part of the HTML formatting.

Along with Markdown formatting, Apple News Format now supports the following HTML Markup:

  • Strong (Bold): <strong><b>
  • Emphasis (Italics): <em><i>
  • Links: <a>
  • Lists: <ul><ol><li>
  • Line Breaks: <p><br><br />
  • Subscript and Superscript: <sub><sup>
  • Strikethrough: <del>
  • Preformatted Text: <pre>
  • Code: <code><samp>
  • Footer: <footer>
  • Aside: <aside>
  • Block Quote: <blockquote>

Apple News publishers looking to get more information on the newly supported and unsupported tags can visit HTML Markup for Apple News Format in the Apple News Format Reference. To preview the new Apple News Format JSON, download the latest build News Preview and Xcode.

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