What is HTML: Everything You Need to Know

HTML, short for Hypertext Markup Language, is the backbone of the World Wide Web. It allows web developers to structure and present content like text, images, forms, and multimedia for display in a web browser.

If you want to create websites or web applications, having a solid grasp of HTML is essential. This guide will teach you everything you need to know about HTML.

A Brief History of HTML

HTML has an interesting origin story. It was originally conceived in the late 1980s by physicist Tim Berners-Lee at CERN. At the time, sharing information between scientists was tedious. Tim envisioned "a web of information" that scientists could access easily.

He created HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) to transfer data and HTML to format pages. The first HTML tags focused on text formatting like headings, paragraphs, lists. Under Tim‘s stewardship, HTML expanded to support more advanced features like multimedia, vector graphics, and mathematical formulas.

Over about 30 years, HTML progressed through 5 major revisions – culminating to where it is now, HTML5.

Key Milestones

1991 – The first HTML tags are created
1995 – HTML 2.0 forms the baseline web standard
1997 – HTML 3.2 adds support for tables, applets, text flow
1999 – HTML 4.01 improves compatibility across browsers
2014 – HTML5 adds multimedia, graphics, and connectivity

Today, HTML5 remains the standard that all web developers should learn.

How HTML Works

HTML uses a simple tag-based system to structure content. Tags consist of element names surrounded by angle brackets. Most tags have an opening and closing tag:

  <openingTag> Content goes here... </closingTag>

HTML documents form a hierarchy with nested tags:

  <html>
    <head> </head>
    <body>
      <p>My paragraph of text</p> 
    </body>
  </html>

The browser parses the HTML and renders it onscreen. The HTML comprises the structure and semantics. Additional technologies like CSS and JavaScript attach the visual styling and interactions.

Basic HTML Document Structure

Now let‘s look at a typical HTML structure.

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <title>Page Title</title> </head>

<body>
  <header>
    <!-- navigation -->  
  </header>

  <main>
    <!-- page content -->
  </main>

  <footer>
    <!-- page footer -->  
  </footer>
</body>

</html>

Let‘s break this down:

<!DOCTYPE html> – The doctype declares the document as HTML5
<html> – The root HTML element
<head> – Contains meta data and links to external files
<body> – Holds the visible page content
<header>, <footer> – Represents common page sections
<main> – Wraps the central content

Basic Text Formatting Tags

Text content makes up a lot of web pages. HTML has tags to structure text with headings, paragraphs, lists, etc.

Headings define section titles. They range from <h1> (the highest level) to <h6> (the lowest):

  <h1>Heading 1</h1>
  <h2>Heading 2</h2> 
  <h3>Heading 3</h3>

<p> defines paragraphs of text:

  <p>Paragraph 1 text</p>
<p>Paragraph 2 text</p>

For lists, there are ordered lists (<ol>), unordered lists (<ul>), and list items (<li>):

  <ol>
    <li>First item</li>
    <li>Second item</li>
  </ol>
<ul>
<li>Bullet point 1</li> 
<li>Bullet point 2</li>
</ul>

There are also tags for <blockquote>, <strong>, <em>, <sub>, <sup>, enabling rich text semantics.

Adding Media With the IMG and A Tags

The <img> tag embeds images. It has a mandatory src attribute pointing to the image file path:

  <img src="images/my-photo.jpg" alt="Description of image">

The <a> anchor tag creates links to other web pages:

  <a href="about.html">About</a>

The href contains the target URL. Anchor tags enable critical website navigation and inter-connectivity.

Structuring Pages With Semantic HTML

The tags we‘ve covered so far all bring structure and meaning to content. This is known as semantic HTML.

Some important semantic elements include:

<header> – Site branding/navigation
<nav> – Major navigation links
<main> – Primary page content
<article> – Self-contained content
<section> – Thematic grouping of content
<aside> – Tangential content
<footer> – Copyrights, contacts, sitemap, etc

Semantic tags describe content purpose. This helps web accessibility technologies interpret pages more accurately.

Adding Style With CSS

So HTML provides the document structure and content. But what about colors, fonts, alignments, animations? That‘s where CSS comes in.

CSS is the presentation layer. It lets you style elements with color, size, layout, effects, and graphical assets like backgrounds and borders.

CSS can be added inline, internally, or externally:

Inline – Inside HTML tags via the style attribute
Internal – Inside an HTML <style> tag in <head>
External – Implemented from a separate .css file referenced in <head>

Here‘s an example CSS ruleset:

  p {
    color: blue;
    font-size: 20px; 
    text-align: center;
  }

This targets paragraphs to be blue, centered, 20-pixel text. The styling possibilities are endless!

JavaScript Brings Interactivity

HTML and CSS help you structure and style content. To implement complex interactions and dynamic effects, you use JavaScript.

Here are some common uses for JavaScript:

Form validation
Interactive buttons, menus, modals
Scroll, parallax, animation effects
Live content updates
Browser events handling
APIs for data, maps, media

JavaScript can be implemented right inside HTML or imported externally.

Let‘s add a click counter to demonstrate:

<button id="btn" onclick="countClicks()"> Click </button>

function countClicks() {
  clickCount += 1; 
  console.log(clickCount);
}

</script>

The JavaScript increments a counter variable each button click. This kind of interactivity takes your pages to the next level!

Putting It All Together

We‘ve covered core building blocks like:

HTML – Structure and Content
CSS – Presentation and Style
JavaScript – Interactions and Effects

Using these languages in harmony enables you to create robust websites and web apps.

Now see it all come together in this tutorial from Kevin Powell:

Kevin demonstrates building a slick home page using modern HTML, CSS like Flexbox and Grid, and vanilla JavaScript code.

Follow along to gain valuable real-world experience!

Tips for Writing Clean HTML

With practice writing HTML, you pick up helpful authoring tips and tricks. Here are my top suggestions:

Use consistent indentation and whitespace
Write semantic, descriptive class/ID names
Break into partial templates for better organization
Validate frequently to avoid bugs
Comment sections of complex code
Practice progressive enhancement and graceful degradation

Clean markup makes your code sustainable long-term and easier to work in.

Accessibility Tips

An important consideration with any website is making content usable for all people. HTML provides built-in features to help support those with disabilities.

Here are key web accessibility tips:

Use semantic HTML tags to convey meaning
Provide text equivalents for images/media via alt attributes
Support screen readers with proper link text and ARIA roles
Make elements keyboard and screen reader accessible
Design color contrast for low vision users
Support captions, transcripts, audio descriptions for multimedia

Web accessibility benefits users with disabilities while providing better experiences for everyone.

Resources for Learning HTML

If you‘re eager to start writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, awesome online resources can set you up for success:

freeCodeCamp – Interactive coding lessons
Codecademy – Tutorials and coding practice
web.dev – Guides from Google developers
MDN web docs – Excellent documentation resource
HTMLDog – HTML and CSS beginner guides

Combine structured learning with creating your own experiments. The direct experience translating tutorials into projects accelerates practical skills.

Over time and consistent practice, HTML knowledge sticks for tackling real-world development work!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need to know HTML?

Yes! Understanding HTML is essential for anyone getting into web design or development. Since it provides the content structure for websites, HTML skills empower you to build, modify, and optimize pages.

Q: Is HTML easy to learn?

The basics of HTML are quite easy. You can get a document up with proper formatting in just a day. Learning expert techniques for semantic, accessible, optimized web pages does take steady practice over time. But beginner coding skills come quickly.

Q: How long does it take to learn HTML?

With consistent daily practice over 2-4 weeks, expect to gain competency with core HTML:

Document structure
Key tags for text, media
Tables and forms
Etc

You can create basic static sites. More complex interactive web apps require deeper knowledge over months and years.

Q: Can I learn HTML by myself?

Absolutely! All the materials to master HTML on your own are freely available online. I recommend structured courses to start. Then reinforce skills by creating your own pages and projects while referencing documentation for syntax details.

Q: What can I use HTML for?

The web runs on HTML. With HTML skills, you can build websites, web apps, email newsletters, online documentation, interactive tutorials, media content, browser extensions, multiplayer games… The possibilities are endless!

Dive Deeper into HTML

I hope this guide has sparked your passion for unlocking the power of HTML!

With a solid handle on HTML fundamentals, you can start structuring awesome web creations.

To further explore HTML, dig into these advanced articles:

HTML Crash Course – Cram session on core syntax
Guide to HTML Forms – Collect user inputs
Adding Audio and Video – Enhance with multimedia
HTML Canvas – Render 2D/3D graphics

The journey ahead is exciting. Happy coding!