HTML

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.

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 (which is shown in the browser's title bar or in the page's tab)

The <body> element defines the document's body, and is a container for all the visible contents, such as headings, paragraphs, images, hyperlinks, tables, lists, etc.

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:

<tagname> Content goes here... </tagname>

The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:

<h1>My First Heading</h1>

<p>My first paragraph.</p>

Note: Some HTML elements have no content (like the <br> element). These elements 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:

HTML Page Structure

Below is a visualization of an HTML page structure:

Note: The content inside the <body> section will be displayed in a browser. The content inside the <title> element will be shown in the browser's title bar or in the page's tab.

HTML History

Since the early days of the World Wide Web, there have been many versions of HTML: