---
title: "Give footnotes the boot"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/give-footnotes-the-boot-yaws3rwb5
source_url: https://jakearchibald.com/2025/give-footnotes-the-boot/
type: article
source: "Jake Archibald"
published: 2025-07-01T15:26:58.234Z
updated: 2025-07-01T15:27:25.057Z
tags: ["webdev", "css", "html", "ux", "accessibility"]
reading_time: 6
upvotes: 0
comments: 0
language: en
---

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# Give footnotes the boot

**[Jake Archibald](https://daily.dev/sources/jakearchibald)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

Footnotes create poor user experience both in print and on the web, forcing readers to interrupt their flow and navigate away from the main content. Web implementations are even worse, requiring scrolling and making it difficult to return to the original position. Better alternatives include using parentheses for short asides, HTML section elements with note roles for longer content, and details/summary elements for expandable supplementary information. These approaches keep content contextual, easily skippable, and maintain reading flow.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://jakearchibald.com/2025/give-footnotes-the-boot/>

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---

Tags: [#webdev](https://daily.dev/tags/webdev), [#css](https://daily.dev/tags/css), [#html](https://daily.dev/tags/html), [#ux](https://daily.dev/tags/ux), [#accessibility](https://daily.dev/tags/accessibility)

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