HTML Facts for Kids

What Exactly Is HTML?

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), is a computer programming language invented by physicist Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 that is used to create and display pages on the web. Special computer programs called internet browsers (hint: you're using one now) are programmed to read and interpret HTML files, which tell the browsers what information to display.

HTML is made up of HTML tags, which are words or abbreviations written between a greater-than sign (<) and a less-than sign (>), to let browsers know what type of information to expect and how to display it on the screen. For example, to write a heading like the one above this paragraph, the HTML tag is: <h3>What Exactly Is HTML?</h3>.

Some Common HTML Tags

Here is a list of some common HTML tags and what they mean:

<h1></h1> stands for heading 1 and is the largest size heading. Like we've already seen, there are also other, smaller heading tags from h1-h5.
<p></p> stands for paragraph and is used wherever normal text is needed.
<b></b> stands for bold and is used to make text bold (we've been using it in this list). Usually it is used inside of a paragraph or a heading and not by itself.
<img src="https://www.experimonkey.com/favicon.ico"> stands for image and you just might've noticed this tag is a little different from the ones above. First off, the <img> tag does not have a closing tag. That's the second part of the tag with the slash (/) inside of it. More importantly, it also has something called an attribute, the part that begins with src=. Attributes are used by programmers to give the browser additional pieces of information. Here, the src attribute stands for source and tells the browser the URL of the image the programmer wants to use.

Try Writing Your Own HTML

Now, for the fun part. In the input box below, you can try writing your own HTML code. Let's start off by writing a heading. Try typing <h1>I'm writing HTML!</h1> and see what happens.