diff --git a/include/layout.inc b/include/layout.inc
index e994ebe91..9f2509b05 100644
--- a/include/layout.inc
+++ b/include/layout.inc
@@ -46,6 +46,17 @@ function highlight_php($code, $return = FALSE)
     else { echo $highlighted; }
 }
 
+// Same as highlight_php() but does not require '<?php' in $code
+function highlight_php_trimmed($code, $return = false)
+{
+    $code = "<?php\n" . $code;
+    $highlighted_code = highlight_php($code, true);
+    $highlighted_code = preg_replace("/\&lt;\?php(\<br \/\>)+/", '', $highlighted_code, 1);
+
+    if ($return) { return $highlighted_code; }
+    else { echo $highlighted_code; }
+}
+
 // Stats pages still need this
 function commonHeader($title) { site_header($title); }
 
diff --git a/releases/8_0_x.php b/releases/8_0_x.php
index 8d8aff699..c22dc257f 100644
--- a/releases/8_0_x.php
+++ b/releases/8_0_x.php
@@ -46,14 +46,20 @@ site_header("PHP 8.0.0 Release Announcement", array(
       <div class="php8-compare__block example-contents">
         <div class="php8-compare__label">PHP 7</div>
         <div class="php8-code phpcode">
-          <pre>htmlspecialchars($string, ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401, 'UTF-8', false);</pre>
+            <?php highlight_php_trimmed(
+                'htmlspecialchars($string, ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401, \'UTF-8\', false);'
+            );?>
         </div>
+
+
       </div>
       <div class="php8-compare__arrow"></div>
       <div class="php8-compare__block example-contents">
         <div class="php8-compare__label php8-compare__label_new">PHP 8</div>
         <div class="php8-code phpcode">
-          <pre>htmlspecialchars($string, double_encode: false);</pre>
+            <?php highlight_php_trimmed(
+                'htmlspecialchars($string, double_encode: false);'
+            );?>
         </div>
       </div>
     </div>