HTML Introduction

❮ Previous Home Next ❯

What is HTML?

HTML pages are created by tagging textual information with HTML markup. HTML markup consists of tags, which appear inside angled brackets (< and >).

HTML stands for

Hypertext: Text that you click to jump from document to document. This is a refer-ence to the ability of Web pages to link to one another.

Markup: Tags that apply layout and formatting conventions to plain text. Literally, the plain text is “marked up” with the tags.

Language: A reference to the fact that HTML is considered a programming language.

A Simple HTML Document

Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>

<h1>Page Heading</h1>
<p>Page paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>
Try this code ❯


What is an HTML Element?

HTML elements are the basic units of HTML, the predominant markup language of the Web. HTML elements are the basic units of HTML, and consist of tags that surround different types of content. Web browsers do not display HTML tags, but use them to interpret the content of the page.

Example: <elementName> Content </elementName>

Start tag Element content End tag
<h1> Heading </h1>
<p> Paragraph. </p>
<hr> none none

Example One

An HTML tag is <b>, which make text to appear in bold. <b> only notes where text should begin to appear in bold, while the tag </b> marks the end of the emboldening. Most HTML tags have a corresponding end tag, which is specified by the name of the tag preceded by the / character.

Example

<p>This is a <b>bold</b> text.</p>
Try this code ❯

Example Two

Another example of an HTML tag is <i>, which causes text to appear in italic. In HTML 4.01, the <i> tag was used to render text in italics. However, this is not necessarily the case with HTML5. Style sheets can be used to format the text inside the <i> element.

Example

<p>This is an <b>italic</b> text.</p>
Try this code ❯

Note: That the tags are not case-sensitive. In other words, <B> or <b> are the same tag, both specifying bold text.





Web Browsers

To render a HTML documents and display them correctly web browser is used.

A browser does not display the HTML elements, but uses them to determine how to display the document.

Web browser

HTML Page Structure

The following is a visualization of an HTML page structure:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<HTML>
<head>
<title>Title of the page</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Heading of the page</h1>
<p> Paragraph of the page.</p>
</body>

Note: the <body> section will be rendered (displayed) in a browser and the <title> element will be shown in the browser's title bar or in the page's tab.

HTML History

The World Wide Web, there have been many versions of HTML:

Year Version
1989 Tim Berners-Lee invented the www
1991 Tim Berners-Lee invented the HTML
1993 Dave Raggett drafted the HTML+
1995 HTML Working Group defined the HTML 2.0
1997 W3C Recommendation: HTML 3.2
1999 W3C Recommendation: HTML 4.01
2000 W3C Recommendation: XHTML 1.0
2008 22 January 2008 Initial release. 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

Note: This tutorial based on HTML5 standard.

❮ Previous Home Next ❯