The HTML anchor tag defines a hyperlink that links one page to another page. It can create hyperlink to other web page as well as files, location, or any URL. The “href” attribute is the most important attribute of the HTML a tag. and which links to destination page or URL.
href attribute of HTML anchor tag
The href attribute is used to define the address of the file to be linked. In other words, it points out the destination page.
The syntax of HTML anchor tag is given below.<a href = "..........."> Link Text </a>
Let’s see an example of HTML anchor tag.
<a href="second.html">Click for Second Page</a>
Specify a location for Link using target attribute
If we want to open that link to another page then we can use target attribute of <a> tag. With the help of this link will be open in next page.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Click on <a href="https://www.javatpoint.com/" target="_blank"> this-link </a>to go on home page of JavaTpoint.</p>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Note:
The target attribute can only use with href attribute in anchor tag.
If we will not use target attribute then link will open in same page.
Appearance of HTML anchor tag
An unvisited link is displayed underlined and blue.
HTML paragraph or HTML p tag is used to define a paragraph in a webpage. Let’s take a simple example to see how it work. It is a notable point that a browser itself add an empty line before and after a paragraph. An HTML <p> tag indicates starting of new paragraph.
Note: If we are using various <p> tags in one HTML file then browser automatically adds a single blank line between the two paragraphs.
See this example:
<p>This is first paragraph.</p>
<p>This is second paragraph.</p>
<p>This is third paragraph.</p>
Output:
This is first paragraph.
This is second paragraph.
This is third paragraph.
Space inside HTML Paragraph
If you put a lot of spaces inside the HTML p tag, browser removes extra spaces and extra line while displaying the page. The browser counts number of spaces and lines as a single one.
<p>
I am
going to provide
you a tutorial on HTML
and hope that it will
be very beneficial for you.
</p>
<p>
Look, I put here a lot
of spaces but I know, Browser will ignore it.
</p>
<p>
You cannot determine the display of HTML</p>
<p>because resized windows may create different result.
</p>
Output:
I am going to provide you a tutorial on HTML and hope that it will be very beneficial for you.
Look, I put here a lot of spaces but I know, Browser will ignore it.
You cannot determine the display of HTML
because resized windows may create different result.
As you can see, all the extra lines and unnecessary spaces are removed by the browser.
How to Use <br> and <hr> tag with paragraph?
An HTML <br> tag is used for line break and it can be used with paragraph elements. Following is the example to show how to use <br> with <p> element.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h2> Use of line break with pragraph tag</h2>
<p><br>Papa and mama, and baby and Dot,
<br>Willie and me?the whole of the lot
<br>Of us all went over in Bimberlie's sleigh,
<br>To grandmama's house on Christmas day.
</p>
</body>
</html>
Output:
An HTML <hr> tag is used to apply a horizontal line between two statements or two paragraphs. Following is the example which is showing use of <hr> tag with paragraph.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h2> Example to show a horizontal line with paragraphs</h2>
<p> An HTML hr tag draw a horizontal line and separate two paragraphs with that line.<hr> it will start a new paragraph.
</p>
</body>
</html>
HTML Formatting is a process of formatting text for better look and feel. HTML provides us ability to format text without using CSS. There are many formatting tags in HTML. These tags are used to make text bold, italicized, or underlined. There are almost 14 options available that how text appears in HTML and XHTML.
In HTML the formatting tags are divided into two categories:
Physical tag: These tags are used to provide the visual appearance to the text.
Logical tag: These tags are used to add some logical or semantic value to the text.
NOTE: There are some physical and logical tags which may give same visual appearance, but they will be different in semantics.
Here, we are going to learn 14 HTML formatting tags. Following is the list of HTML formatting text.
Element name
Description
<b>
This is a physical tag, which is used to bold the text written between it.
<strong>
This is a logical tag, which tells the browser that the text is important.
<i>
This is a physical tag which is used to make text italic.
<em>
This is a logical tag which is used to display content in italic.
<mark>
This tag is used to highlight text.
<u>
This tag is used to underline text written between it.
<tt>
This tag is used to appear a text in teletype. (not supported in HTML5)
<strike>
This tag is used to draw a strikethrough on a section of text. (Not supported in HTML5)
<sup>
It displays the content slightly above the normal line.
<sub>
It displays the content slightly below the normal line.
<del>
This tag is used to display the deleted content.
<ins>
This tag displays the content which is added
<big>
This tag is used to increase the font size by one conventional unit.
<small>
This tag is used to decrease the font size by one unit from base font size.
1) Bold Text
HTML<b> and <strong> formatting elements
The HTML <b> element is a physical tag which display text in bold font, without any logical importance. If you write anything within <b>…………</b> element, is shown in bold letters.
See this example:
<p><b>Write Your First Paragraph in bold text.</b></p>
Output:
Write Your First Paragraph in bold text.
The HTML <strong> tag is a logical tag, which displays the content in bold font and informs the browser about its logical importance. If you write anything between <strong>???????. </strong>, is shown important text.
See this example:
<p><strong>This is an important content</strong>, and this is normal content</p>
Output:
This is an important content, and this is normal content
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>formatting elements</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Explanation of formatting element</h1>
<p><strong>This is an important content</strong>, and this is normal content</p>
</body>
</html>
2) Italic Text
HTML <i> and <em> formatting elements
The HTML <i> element is physical element, which display the enclosed content in italic font, without any added importance. If you write anything within <i>…………</i> element, is shown in italic letters.
See this example:
<p><i>Write Your First Paragraph in italic text.</i></p>
The HTML <em> tag is a logical element, which will display the enclosed content in italic font, with added semantics importance.
See this example:
<p><em>This is an important content</em>, which displayed in italic font.</p>
Output:
This is an important content, which displayed in italic font.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>formatting elements</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Explanation of italic formatting element</h1>
<p><em>This is an important content</em>, which displayed in italic font.</p>
</body>
</html>
3) HTML Marked formatting
If you want to mark or highlight a text, you should write the content within <mark>………</mark>.
See this example:
<h2> I want to put a <mark> Mark</mark> on your face</h2>
Output:
I want to put a Mark on your face
4) Underlined Text
If you write anything within <u>………</u> element, is shown in underlined text.
See this example:
<p><u>Write Your First Paragraph in underlined text.</u></p>
Output:
Write Your First Paragraph in underlined text.
5) Strike Text
Anything written within <strike>…………………..</strike> element is displayed with strikethrough. It is a thin line which cross the statement.
See this example:
<p><strike>Write Your First Paragraph with strikethrough</strike>.</p>
Output:
Write Your First Paragraph with strikethrough.
6) Monospaced Font
If you want that each letter has the same width then you should write the content within <tt>………….</tt> element.
Note: We know that most of the fonts are known as variable-width fonts because different letters have different width. (for example: ‘w’ is wider than ‘i’). Monospaced Font provides similar space among every letter.
See this example:
<p>Hello <tt>Write Your First Paragraph in monospaced font.</tt></p>
Output:
Hello Write Your First Paragraph in monospaced font.
7) Superscript Text
If you put the content within <sup>…………..</sup> element, is shown in superscript; means it is displayed half a character’s height above the other characters.
See this example:
<p>Hello <sup>Write Your First Paragraph in superscript.</sup></p>
Output:
Hello Write Your First Paragraph in superscript.
8) Subscript Text
If you put the content within <sub>…………..</sub> element, is shown in subscript ; means it is displayed half a character’s height below the other characters.
See this example:
<p>Hello <sub>Write Your First Paragraph in subscript.</sub></p>
Output:
Hello Write Your First Paragraph in subscript.
9) Deleted Text
Anything that puts within <del>……….</del> is displayed as deleted text.
See this example:
<p>Hello <del>Delete your first paragraph.</del></p>
Output:
Hello
10) Inserted Text
Anything that puts within <ins>……….</ins> is displayed as inserted text.
See this example:
<p><del>Delete your first paragraph.</del><ins>Write another paragraph.</ins></p>
Output:
Delete your first paragraph.Write another paragraph.
11) Larger Text
If you want to put your font size larger than the rest of the text then put the content within <big>………</big>. It increase one font size larger than the previous one.
See this example:
<p>Hello <big>Write the paragraph in larger font.</big></p>
Output:
Hello Write the paragraph in larger font.
12) Smaller Text
If you want to put your font size smaller than the rest of the text then put the content within <small>………</small>tag. It reduces one font size than the previous one.
See this example:
<p>Hello <small>Write the paragraph in smaller font.</small></p>
An HTML file is made of elements. These elements are responsible for creating web pages and define content in that webpage. An element in HTML usually consist of a start tag <tag name>, close tag </tag name> and content inserted between them. Technically, an element is a collection of start tag, attributes, end tag, content between them.
Note: Some elements does not have end tag and content, these elements are termed as empty elements or self-closing element or void elements.
Such as:
<p> Hello world!!! </p>
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>WebPage</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is my first web page</h1>
<h2> How it looks?</h2>
<p>It looks Nice!!!!!</p>
</body>
</html>
All the content written between body elements are visible on web page.
Void element: All the elements in HTML do not require to have start tag and end tag, some elements does not have content and end tag such elements are known as Void elements or empty elements. These elements are also called as unpaired tag.
Some Void elements are <br> (represents a line break) , <hr>(represents a horizontal line), etc.
Nested HTML Elements: HTML can be nested, which means an element can contain another element.
Block-level and Inline HTML elements
For the default display and styling purpose in HTML, all the elements are divided into two categories:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<div style="background-color: lightblue">This is first div</div>
<div style="background-color: lightgreen">This is second div</div>
<p style="background-color: pink">This is a block level element</p>
</body>
</html>
Output:
In the above example we have used
tag, which defines a section in a web page, and takes full width of page.
We have used style attribute which is used to styling the HTML content, and the background color are showing that it’s a block level element.
Inline elements:
Inline elements are those elements, which differentiate the part of a given text and provide it a particular function.
These elements does not start with new line and take width as per requirement.
The Inline elements are mostly used with other elements.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<a href="https://www.javatpoint.com/html-tutorial">Click on link</a>
<span style="background-color: lightblue">this is inline element</span>
<p>This will take width of text only</p>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Following is the list of the some main elements used in HTML:
Start tag
Content
End tag
Description
<h1> …… <h6>
These are headings of HTML
</h1>??..</h6>
These elements are used to provide the headings of page.
<p>
This is the paragraph
</p>
This element is used to display a content in form of paragraph.
<div>
This is div section
</div>
This element is used to provide a section in web page.
<br>
This element is used to provide a line break. ( void element)
<hr>
This element is used to provide a horizontal line. (void element)
HTML attributes are special words which provide additional information about the elements or attributes are the modifier of the HTML element.
Each element or tag can have attributes, which defines the behaviour of that element.
Attributes should always be applied with start tag.
The Attribute should always be applied with its name and value pair.
The Attributes name and values are case sensitive, and it is recommended by W3C that it should be written in Lowercase only.
You can add multiple attributes in one HTML element, but need to give space between two attributes.
Syntax
<element attribute_name="value">content</element>
Example
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1> This is Style attribute</h1>
<p style="height: 50px; color: blue">It will add style property in element</p>
<p style="color: red">It will change the color of content</p>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Explanation of above example:
<p style="height: 50px; color: blue">It will add style property in element</p>
In the above statement, we have used paragraph tags in which we have applied style attribute. This attribute is used for applying CSS property on any HTML element. It provides height to paragraph element of 50px and turns it colour to blue.
<p style="color: red">It will change the color of content</p>
In the above statement we have again used style attribute in paragraph tag, which turns its colour red.
Note: There are some commonly used attributes are given below, and the complete list and explanation of all attributes are given in HTML attributes List.
The title attribute in HTML
Description: The title attribute is used as text tooltip in most of the browsers. It display its text when user move the cursor over a link or any text. You can use it with any text or link to show the description about that link or text. In our example, we are taking this with paragraph tag and heading tag.
Example
With <h1> tag:
<h1 title="This is heading tag">Example of title attribute</h1>
With <p> tag:
<p title="This is paragraph tag">Move the cursor over the heading and paragraph, and you will see a description as a tooltip</p>
Code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1 title="This is heading tag">Example of title attribute</h1>
<p title="This is paragraph tag">Move the cursor over the heading and paragraph, and you will see a description as a tooltip</p>
</body>
</html>
Output:
The href attribute in HTML
Description: The href attribute is the main attribute of <a> anchor tag. This attribute gives the link address which is specified in that link. The href attribute provides the hyperlink, and if it is blank, then it will remain in same page.
Example
With link address:
<a href="https://www.javatpoint.com/html-anchor">This is a link</a>
Without link address:
<a href="">This is a link</a>
The src Attribute
The src attribute is one of the important and required attribute of <img> element. It is source for the image which is required to display on browser. This attribute can contain image in same directory or another directory. The image name or source should be correct else browser will not display the image.
Note: The above example also have height and width attribute, which define the height and width of image on web page.
Output:
Quotes: single quotes or double quotes?
In this chapter you have seen that, we have used attribute with double quotes, but some people might use single quotes in HTML. So use of single quotes with HTML attribute, is also allowed. The following both statements are absolutely fine.
<a href="https://www.javatpoint.com">A link to HTML.</a>
<a href='https://www.javatpoint.com'>A link to HTML.</a>
IN HTML5, you can also omit use of quotes around attribute values.
<a href=https://www.foobrdigital.com>A link to HTML.</a>
HTML tags are like keywords which defines that how web browser will format and display the content. With the help of tags, a web browser can distinguish between an HTML content and a simple content. HTML tags contain three main parts: opening tag, content and closing tag. But some HTML tags are unclosed tags.
When a web browser reads an HTML document, browser reads it from top to bottom and left to right. HTML tags are used to create HTML documents and render their properties. Each HTML tags have different properties.
An HTML file must have some essential tags so that web browser can differentiate between a simple text and HTML text. You can use as many tags you want as per your code requirement.
All HTML tags must enclosed within < > these brackets.
Every tag in HTML perform different tasks.
If you have used an open tag <tag>, then you must use a close tag </tag> (except some tags)
Syntax
<tag> content </tag>
HTML Tag Examples
Note: HTML Tags are always written in lowercase letters. The basic HTML tags are given below:
<p> Paragraph Tag </p>
<h2> Heading Tag </h2>
<b> Bold Tag </b>
<i> Italic Tag </i>
<u> Underline Tag</u>Test it Now
Unclosed HTML Tags
Some HTML tags are not closed, for example br and hr.
<br> Tag: br stands for break line, it breaks the line of the code.
<hr> Tag: hr stands for Horizontal Rule. This tag is used to put a line across the webpage.
An HTML document consist of its basic building blocks which are:
Tags: An HTML tag surrounds the content and apply meaning to it. It is written between < and > brackets.
Attribute: An attribute in HTML provides extra information about the element, and it is applied within the start tag. An HTML attribute contains two fields: name & value.
Syntax
<tag name attribute_name= ” attr_value”> content </tag name>
Elements: An HTML element is an individual component of an HTML file. In an HTML file, everything written within tags are termed as HTML elements.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>The basic building blocks of HTML</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>The building blocks</h2>
<p>This is a paragraph tag</p>
<p style="color: red">The style is attribute of paragraph tag</p>
<span>The element contains tag, attribute and content</span>
</body>
</html>
Output:
The building blocks
This is a paragraph tag
The style is attribute of paragraph tagThe element contains tag, attribute and content
An HTML file is a text file, so to create an HTML file we can use any text editors.
Text editors are the programs which allow editing in a written text, hence to create a web page we need to write our code in some text editor.
There are various types of text editors available which you can directly download, but for a beginner, the best text editor is Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac).
After learning the basics, you can easily use other professional text editors which are, Notepad++, Sublime Text, Vim, etc.
In our tutorial, we will use Notepad and sublime text editor. Following are some easy ways to create your first web page with Notepad, and sublime text.
A. HTML code with Notepad. (Recommended for Beginners)
Notepad is a simple text editor and suitable for beginners to learn HTML. It is available in all versions of Windows, from where you easily access it.
Step 1: Open Notepad (Windows)
Step 2: Write code in HTML
Step 3: Save the HTML file with .htm or .html extension.
Step 4: Open the HTML page in your web browser.
To run the HTML page, you need to open the file location, where you have saved the file and then either double-click on file or click on open with option
B. HTML code with Sublime Text-editor.(Recommended after learning basics of HTML)
When you will learn the basics of HTML, then you can use some professional text editors, which will help you to write an efficient and fast code. So to use Sublime Text editors, first it needs to download and install from internet. You can easily download it from this https://www.sublimetext.com/download link and can install in your PC. When installation of Sublime text editor done then you can follow the simple steps to use it:
Step 1: Open Sublime Text editor(Windows 8):
To open Sublime Text editor go to Start screen ⤏ type Sublime Text⤏ Open it. To open a new page press CTRL+N.
Step 2: Save the page before writing any code.
To save your page in Sublime Text press Ctrl+S or go to File option ⤏ save, to save a file use extension .htm or .html. We recommend to save the file first then write the code because after saving the page sublime text editor will give you suggestions to write code.
Step 3: Write the code in Sublime Text editor
Step 4: Open the HTML page in your Browser
To execute or open this page in Web browser just right click by mouse on sublime text page and click on Open in Browser.
HTML is an acronym which stands for Hyper Text Markup Language which is used for creating web pages and web applications. Let’s see what is meant by Hypertext Markup Language, and Web page.
Hyper Text: HyperText simply means “Text within Text.” A text has a link within it, is a hypertext. Whenever you click on a link which brings you to a new webpage, you have clicked on a hypertext. HyperText is a way to link two or more web pages (HTML documents) with each other.
Markup language: A markup language is a computer language that is used to apply layout and formatting conventions to a text document. Markup language makes text more interactive and dynamic. It can turn text into images, tables, links, etc.
Web Page: A web page is a document which is commonly written in HTML and translated by a web browser. A web page can be identified by entering an URL. A Web page can be of the static or dynamic type. With the help of HTML only, we can create static web pages.
Hence, HTML is a markup language which is used for creating attractive web pages with the help of styling, and which looks in a nice format on a web browser. An HTML document is made of many HTML tags and each HTML tag contains different content.
Let’s see a simple example of HTML.
<!DOCTYPE>
<html>
<head>
<title>Web page title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Write Your First Heading</h1>
<p>Write Your First Paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>
Test it Now
Description of HTML Example
<!DOCTYPE>: It defines the document type or it instruct the browser about the version of HTML.
<html > :This tag informs the browser that it is an HTML document. Text between html tag describes the web document. It is a container for all other elements of HTML except <!DOCTYPE>
<head>: It should be the first element inside the <html> element, which contains the metadata(information about the document). It must be closed before the body tag opens.
<title>: As its name suggested, it is used to add title of that HTML page which appears at the top of the browser window. It must be placed inside the head tag and should close immediately. (Optional)
<body> : Text between body tag describes the body content of the page that is visible to the end user. This tag contains the main content of the HTML document.
<h1> : Text between <h1> tag describes the first level heading of the webpage.
<p> : Text between <p> tag describes the paragraph of the webpage.
Brief History of HTML
In the late 1980’s , a physicist, Tim Berners-Lee who was a contractor at CERN, proposed a system for CERN researchers. In 1989, he wrote a memo proposing an internet based hypertext system.
Tim Berners-Lee is known as the father of HTML. The first available description of HTML was a document called “HTML Tags” proposed by Tim in late 1991. The latest version of HTML is HTML5, which we will learn later in this tutorial.
HTML Versions
Since the time HTML was invented there are lots of HTML versions in market, the brief introduction about the HTML version is given below:
HTML 1.0: The first version of HTML was 1.0, which was the barebones version of HTML language, and it was released in1991.
HTML 2.0: This was the next version which was released in 1995, and it was standard language version for website design. HTML 2.0 was able to support extra features such as form-based file upload, form elements such as text box, option button, etc.
HTML 3.2: HTML 3.2 version was published by W3C in early 1997. This version was capable of creating tables and providing support for extra options for form elements. It can also support a web page with complex mathematical equations. It became an official standard for any browser till January 1997. Today it is practically supported by most of the browsers.
HTML 4.01: HTML 4.01 version was released on December 1999, and it is a very stable version of HTML language. This version is the current official standard, and it provides added support for stylesheets (CSS) and scripting ability for various multimedia elements.
HTML5 : HTML5 is the newest version of HyperText Markup language. The first draft of this version was announced in January 2008. There are two major organizations one is W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), and another one is WHATWG( Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) which are involved in the development of HTML 5 version, and still, it is under development.
Features of HTML
1) It is a very easy and simple language. It can be easily understood and modified.
2) It is very easy to make an effective presentation with HTML because it has a lot of formatting tags.
3) It is a markup language, so it provides a flexible way to design web pages along with the text.
4) It facilitates programmers to add a link on the web pages (by html anchor tag), so it enhances the interest of browsing of the user.
5) It is platform-independent because it can be displayed on any platform like Windows, Linux, and Macintosh, etc.
6) It facilitates the programmer to add Graphics, Videos, and Sound to the web pages which makes it more attractive and interactive.
7) HTML is a case-insensitive language, which means we can use tags either in lower-case or upper-case.
represents newly added Elements in HTML5.