What is HTML?
HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages.
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language
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 are represented by tags
HTML tags label pieces of content such as "heading", "paragraph",
"table", and so on
Browsers do not display the HTML tags, but use them to render the
content of the page
Example HTML Document:
<!DOCTYPE html> - declaration defines this document to be HTML5
<html> - element is the root element of an HTML page
<head> - element contains meta information about the document
<title>Page Title</title> - element specifies a title for the document
</head>
<body> - element contains the visible page content
<h1>My First Heading</h1> - element defines a large heading
<p>My first paragraph.</p> - element defines a paragraph
</body>
</html>
Example Explained
The <!DOCTYPE html> declaration defines this document to be HTML5
The <html> element is the root element of an HTML page
The <head> element contains meta information about the document
The <title> element specifies a title for the document
The <body> element contains the visible page content
The <h1> element defines a large heading
The <p> element defines a paragraph
HTML Tags
HTML tags are element names surrounded by angle brackets:
<tagname>content goes here...</tagname>
HTML tags normally come in pairs like <p> and </p>
The first tag in a pair is the start tag, the second tag is the end tag
The end tag is written like the start tag, but with a forward
slash inserted before the tag name
Tip: The start tag is also called the opening tag, and the end tag
the closing tag.
Web Browsers
The purposehttps://www.w3schools.com/html/img_chrome.png of a web browser
(Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) is to read HTML documents and display
them.
The 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: Only the content inside the <body> section (the white area above) is
displayed in a browser.
The <!DOCTYPE> Declaration
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration represents the document type, and helps
browsers to display web pages correctly.
It must only appear once, at the top of the page (before any HTML tags).
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration is not case sensitive.
The <!DOCTYPE> declaration for HTML5 is: <!DOCTYPE html>
HTML Versions
Since the early days of the web, there have been many versions of HTML:
Write HTML Using Notepad or TextEdit
Web pages can be created and modified by using professional HTML editors.
However, for learning HTML we recommend a simple text editor like Notepad
(PC) or TextEdit (Mac).
We believe using a simple text editor is a good way to learn HTML.
HTML Documents
All HTML documents must start with a document type declaration: <!DOCTYPE
html>.
The HTML document itself begins with <html> and ends with </html>.
The visible part of the HTML document is between <body> and </body>.
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
HTML Headings
HTML headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags.
<h1> defines the most important heading. <h6> defines the least important
heading:
Example
<h1>This is heading 1</h1>
<h2>This is heading 2</h2>
<h3>This is heading 3</h3>
HTML Paragraphs
HTML paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag:
Example
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<p>This is another paragraph.</p>
HTML Links
HTML links are defined with the <a> tag:
Example
<a href="https://www.w3schools.com">This is a link</a>
The link's destination is specified in the href attribute.
Attributes are used to provide additional information about HTML elements.
You will learn more about attributes in a later chapter.
HTML Images
HTML images are defined with the <img> tag.
The source file (src), alternative text (alt), width, and height are provided
as attributes:
Example
<img src="w3schools.jpg" alt="W3Schools.com" width="104" height="142">
HTML Buttons
HTML buttons are defined with the <button> tag:
Example
<button>Click me</button>
HTML Elements
An HTML element usually consists of a start tag and an end tag, with the
content inserted in between:
<tagname>Content goes here...</tagname>
The HTML element is everything from the start tag to the end tag:
<p>My first paragraph.</p>
HTML Attributes
All HTML elements can have attributes
Attributes provide additional information about an element
Attributes are always specified in the start tag
Attributes usually come in name/value pairs like: name="value"
The href Attribute
HTML links are defined with the <a> tag. The link address is specified in
the href attribute:
Example
<a href="https://www.w3schools.com">This is a link</a>
The src Attribute
HTML images are defined with the <img> tag.
The filename of the image source is specified in the src attribute:
Example
<img src="img_girl.jpg">
The width and height Attributes
HTML images also have width and height attributes, which specifies the width
and height of the image:
Example
<img src="img_girl.jpg" width="500" height="600">
The width and height are is specified in pixels by default; so width="500"
means 500 pixels wide.
You will learn more about images in our HTML Images chapter.
The alt Attribute
The alt attribute specifies an alternative text to be used, if an image cannot be
displayed.
The value of the alt attribute can be read by screen readers. This way,
someone "listening" to the webpage, e.g. a vision impaired person, can "hear"
the element.
Example
<img src="img_girl.jpg" alt="Girl with a jacket">
The alt attribute is also useful if the image cannot be displayed (e.g. if it does
not exist):
Example
See what happens if we try to display an image that does not exist:
<img src="img_typo.jpg" alt="Girl with a jacket">
The style Attribute
The style attribute is used to specify the styling of an element, like color, font,
size etc.
Example
<p style="color:red">This is a paragraph.</p>
The lang Attribute
The language of the document can be declared in the <html> tag.
The language is declared with the lang attribute.
Declaring a language is important for accessibility applications (screen readers)
and search engines:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
<body>
...
</body>
</html>
The first two letters specify the language (en). If there is a dialect, add two
more letters (US).
The lang Attribute
The language of the document can be declared in the <html> tag.
The language is declared with the lang attribute.
Declaring a language is important for accessibility applications (screen readers)
and search engines:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
<body>
...
</body>
</html>
The first two letters specify the language (en). If there is a dialect, add two
more letters (US).
The title Attribute
Here, a title attribute is added to the <p> element. The value of the title
attribute will be displayed as a tooltip when you mouse over the paragraph:
Example
<p title="I'm a tooltip">
This is a paragraph.
</p>
Chapter Summary
All HTML elements can have attributes
The title attribute provides additional "tool-tip" information
The href attribute provides address information for links
The width and height attributes provide size information for images
The alt attribute provides text for screen readers
At W3Schools we always use lowercase attribute names
At W3Schools we always quote attribute values
Headings Are Important
Search engines use the headings to index the structure and content of your web
pages.
Users often skim a page by its headings. It is important to use headings to show
the document structure.
<h1> headings should be used for main headings, followed by <h2> headings,
then the less important <h3>, and so on.
Note: Use HTML headings for headings only. Don't use headings to make
text BIG or bold.
Bigger Headings
Each HTML heading has a default size. However, you can specify the size for
any heading with the style attribute, using the CSS font-size property:
Example
<h1 style="font-size:60px;">Heading 1</h1>
HTML Horizontal Rules
The <hr> tag defines a thematic break in an HTML page, and is most often
displayed as a horizontal rule.
The HTML <head> Element
The HTML <head> element is a container for metadata. HTML metadata is data
about the HTML document. Metadata is not displayed.
The <head> element is placed between the <html> tag and the <body> tag:
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>My First HTML</title>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
.
.
.
Try it Yourself »
Note: Metadata typically define the document title, character set, styles,
scripts, and other meta information.
