What is HTML?

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It's the standard language used to create and design web pages. It works by using a series of elements to structure the content on a page.

HTML provides the fundamental structure for a Web page.
It consists of a series of elements that define different parts of the content.
These elements tell the browser how to display the text, images, and other content.
Elements label pieces of content, such as "this is a heading", "this is a paragraph", or "this is a link."

A Simple HTML Document

Every web page is built on a basic HTML structure. Here’s what a fundamental HTML document looks like:

Page Title

My First Heading

My first paragraph.

Example Explained

The <!DOCTYPE html> declaration specifies that this document is an HTML5 document.
The <html> element serves as the root container for the entire page.
The <head> element holds meta-information about the page, such as the title that appears in the browser tab.
The <title> element sets the title for the page.
The <body> element contains all the content that is visible to the user, including headings, paragraphs, images, links, and more.
The <h1> element defines a main heading.
The <p> element defines a paragraph of text.

What is an HTML Element?

An HTML element is defined by a start tag, the content inside it, and an end tag. For example, <p>My first paragraph.</p> is a complete paragraph element.

Start tag	Element content	End tag
`<h1>`	My First Heading	`</h1>`
`<p>`	My first paragraph.	`</p>`
`<br>`	none	none

Note: Some HTML elements, like <br> for a line break, are empty and do not have content or an end tag.

Web Browsers

A web browser like Chrome, Firefox, or Safari reads HTML documents and renders them as visual web pages. The browser interprets the HTML tags to determine how to display the content, but it does not show the tags themselves.

HTML Page Structure

The structure of an HTML page is hierarchical. The content inside the <body> section is what appears in the browser window, while the text in the <title> element is shown in the browser's title bar or tab.

HTML History

Since the beginning of the World Wide Web, HTML has gone through many versions. This tutorial focuses on the latest HTML5 standard.

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

HTML Introduction

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