Basic HTML Tags

This chapter covers some basic HTML tags like headings, paragraphs and line breaks.

Try it Yourself - Examples

The best way to learn HTML is to work with examples.

A very basic HTML document
This example has a minimum of HTML tags. It demonstrates how HTML is displayed in a browser. 

HTML paragraphs
This example demonstrates how HTML paragraphs are displayed in a browser.

(You can find more examples at the bottom of this page)

HTML Headings

Headings are defined with the <h1> to <h6> tags. <h1> defines the largest heading. <h6> defines the smallest heading.

<h1>This is a heading</h1>
<h2>This is a heading</h2>
<h3>This is a heading</h3>

Result:

Try it yourself

HTML automatically displays an empty line before and after headings.

HTML Paragraphs

Paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag.

<p>This is a paragraph</p>
<p>This is another paragraph</p>

HTML automatically displays an empty line before and after a paragraph.

Try it yourself

Don't Forget the End Tag

Most browsers will display HTML correctly even if you forget the end tag:

<p>This is a paragraph
<p>This is another paragraph

Try it yourself

The example above will work in most browsers, but don't rely on it. Forgetting the end tag can produce unexpected results or errors.

Note: Future version of HTML will not allow you to skip end tags.

HTML Line Breaks

Use the <br> tag if you want a line break (a new line) without starting a new paragraph:

<p>This is<br>a para<br>graph with line breaks</p>

Try it yourself

The <br> tag is an empty tag. It has no end tag like </br>.

You can read more about empty HTML tags in the next chapter of this tutorial.

<br> or <br />

In XHTML, XML, and future versions of HTML, tags with no end tags (closing tags) are not allowed.

Even if <br> works in all browsers, writing <br /> instead is more future proof.

HTML Comments

Comments can be inserted in the HTML code to make it more readable and understandable. Comments are ignored by the browser and not displayed.

Comments are written like this:

<!-- This is a comment -->

Try it yourself

Note: There is an exclamation point after the opening bracket, but not before the closing bracket.

HTML Output - Useful Tips

You cannot be sure exactly how HTML will be displayed. Large screens, small screens, and resized browser windows will create different results.

With HTML, you cannot change the output by adding extra spaces or extra lines in your HTML code.

The browser will remove extra spaces and extra lines when the page is displayed. Any number of lines count as one space, and any number of spaces count as one space.

Try it yourself  (The example demonstrates some HTML formatting problems)

Examples From This Page

A very basic HTML document
This example has a minimum of HTML tags. It demonstrates how HTML is displayed in a browser. 

HTML paragraphs
This example demonstrates how HTML paragraphs are displayed in a browser.

Headings
This example demonstrates the tags that display headings in an HTML document.

Line breaks
This example demonstrates the use of line breaks in an HTML document.

Hidden comments
This example demonstrates how to insert a hidden comment in the HTML source code.

Poem problems
This example demonstrates some problems with HTML formatting.

More Examples

More paragraphs
This example demonstrates some of the default behaviors of paragraph elements.

Horizontal rule
This example demonstrates how to insert a horizontal rule.

Basic HTML Tags

If you lookup the basic HTML tags in the reference below, you will see that the reference contains additional information about tag attributes.

You will learn more about HTML tag attributes in the next chapter of this tutorial.

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