HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages.
What is HTML?
- HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
- HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages
- HTML describes the structure of a Web page
- HTML consists of a series of elements
- HTML elements tell the browser how to display the content
- HTML elements label pieces of content such as “this is a heading”, “this is a paragraph”, “this is a link”, etc.
A Simple HTML Document
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>Try it Yourself
Example Explained
- The
<!DOCTYPE html>declaration defines that this document is an HTML5 document - The
<html>element is the root element of an HTML page - The
<head>element contains meta information about the HTML page - The
<title>element specifies a title for the HTML page shown in the browser’s title bar or page tab - The
<body>element defines the document’s body and is a container for all the visible contents such as headings, paragraphs, images, links, tables and lists - The
<h1>element defines a large heading - The
<p>element defines a paragraph
What is an HTML Element?
An HTML element is defined by a start tag, some content, and an end tag:
Syntax
<tagname> Content goes here... </tagname>The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:
Example
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>| Start Tag | Element Content | End Tag |
|---|---|---|
<h1> |
My First Heading | </h1> |
<p> |
My first paragraph | </p> |
<br> |
none | none |
Note: Some HTML elements have no content like the
<br> element. These are called empty elements. Empty elements do not have an end tag.
Web Browsers
The purpose of a web browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) is to read HTML documents and display them correctly.
A browser does not display the HTML tags, but uses them to determine how to display the document.
Tip: You can right click any webpage in your browser and click View Page Source to see the raw HTML behind it.
HTML Page Structure
Below is a visualization of an HTML page structure:
Page Structure
<html>
<head>
<title>Page title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Note: Only content inside the
<body> tag is displayed in the browser. Content inside <title> is shown in the browser’s title bar or tab.
HTML History
| Year | Version |
|---|---|
| 1989 | Tim Berners-Lee invented www |
| 1991 | Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML |
| 1993 | Dave Raggett drafted HTML+ |
| 1995 | HTML Working Group defined HTML 2.0 |
| 1997 | W3C Recommendation: HTML 3.2 |
| 1999 | W3C Recommendation: HTML 4.01 |
| 2000 | W3C Recommendation: XHTML 1.0 |
| 2008 | WHATWG HTML5 First Public Draft |
| 2012 | WHATWG HTML5 Living Standard |
| 2014 | W3C Recommendation: HTML5 |
| 2016 | W3C Candidate Recommendation: HTML 5.1 |
| 2017 | W3C Recommendation: HTML5.1 2nd Edition |
| 2017 | W3C Recommendation: HTML5.2 |