Code Land

Introduction to HTML

HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages.
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 elements tell the browser how to display the content
HTML consists of a series of elements
HTML elements label pieces of content such as "this is a heading", "this is a paragraph", "this is a link", etc.

A Simple Program

See the Pen Paragraph by Lakshay Kamat (@lakshaykamat) on CodePen.

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:

Note: Some HTML elements have no content (like the
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 History

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

Year	Version
1999	Tim Berners-Lee invented www
1991	Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML
1993	Dave Raggett drafted HTML+
1995	HTML 2.0
1997	HTML 3.2
1999	HTML 4.01
2000	XHTML 1.0
2008	WHATWG HTML5 First Public Draft
2012	WHATWG HTML5 Living Standard
2014	HTML5
2016	HTML 5.1
2017	HTML5.1 2nd Edition
2017	HTML5.2

Note: This tutorial follows the latest HTML5 standard.