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§6.2

Line Breaks Inside a Block

Two lines in one block—one item or two?

✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §6.2 in the RFC ↗

The requirement

One printed block set on several lines MUST stay one element, with a plain newline between its printed lines — no trailing spaces, no <br>. The same spelling MUST be used for every multi-line block in the document. Inside a table cell, where a newline cannot be written, the break is <br>.

When it applies

One printed block that runs to more than one line because the page sets it that way: a stacked masthead, a postal address, a two-line banner, a title broken across a rule. The lines belong together; only the typesetting separates them.

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output
MEREVALD                     ← one block, two printed lines
Merevald Retail Ltd

Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.

The point, in a small example

A source line break is not a new paragraph. These pages are made up to isolate the rule.

01

✅ SampleConstructedThe rule applies

Two printed lines form one block

This is one two-line block. Keep a plain newline, with no blank paragraph, trailing spaces or <br>.

Source page
Line Breaks Inside a Block — Two printed lines form one block. Source page.
Non-conforming output

What the rule rules out.

Markdown
Please keep this receipt<br>until your order arrives.
Expected output
Markdown
Please keep this receipt
until your order arrives.
Line Breaks Inside a Block · Source page

Two printed lines form one block

Line Breaks Inside a Block — Two printed lines form one block. Source page.

Settled: the block stays whole

  • One printed block MUST be one element, whatever break is written between its lines. Two stacked lines of a masthead MUST NOT become two headings, two paragraphs, or a heading with a subtitle. Splitting it is the never invent failure: the page printed one block, and a split claims it printed two.
  • Whether lines form one block is judged by the printing, not the wording: a single set, a single alignment and a single leading mean one block, even when the two lines read as separable phrases.

The break is a plain newline

The Markdown source keeps every printed line on its own source line. A renderer shows a single newline inside a paragraph as a space, so a rendered view runs the lines together; that is a display artefact, not a change to the output, which is judged on its source (see Numbered Section Headings (§6.5) for the same principle). Two trailing spaces are invisible and are stripped by most whitespace normalisation; <br> puts markup on every line. Neither is used outside table cells.

  • The break MUST be a plain newline, and the same spelling MUST be used for every multi-line block in the document — paragraphs, addresses, headers and footers alike.
  • Inside a table cell a newline cannot be written, so a printed break there is <br> — see Record Groups and Multi-Line Cells (§9.5.3).
  • A line that Markdown would parse as a list item or heading (- , 1. , # at its start) is escaped — see Escaping Printed Marks (§7.2.4).

Not this rule's case

  • A rule printed between blocks is a separator, not a break inside one — see Line Separators and Breaks (§6.3).
  • A line that wraps because it ran out of column width is not a printed break at all: its lines MUST be joined with a space.
  • Text whose line breaks carry meaning, such as verse, is governed by Verse and Hard Line Breaks (§7.2.13).

More

Rule id text-line-breaks-inside-a-block · text layout line-breaks