Chapter 1. HTML Elements

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a language that annotates text. Annotation of text is done using elements. Using the following p element, as an example, we will see how to use HTML:

<p>This is an example</p>

HTML elements also have attributes that will modify how they are rendered or interpreted. Attributes are added inside of the starting tag. Here is the class attribute in a p element:

<p class="example">This is an example</p>

There have been multiple specifications of HTML so far, but we will just look at the most commonly used and important elements of HTML5. HTML5 is the latest official specification, so we will be as future-proof as possible at the time of writing this book. You will want to follow the specifications of HTML as closely as possible. Most browsers are very forgiving and will render your HTML, but when you go beyond the specifications, you can and will run into strange rendering issues.

Note

All HTML elements will have global attributes. The attributes listed for each element in the sections that follow are the attributes beyond the global attributes.