HTML: The Living Standard
Edition for Web Developers — Last Updated 29 October 2025
Edition for Web Developers — Last Updated 29 October 2025
html elementSupport in all current engines.
head element followed by a body element.html element's start tag can be omitted
if the first thing inside the html element is not a comment.html element's end tag can be omitted if
the html element is not immediately followed by a comment.HTMLHtmlElement.The html element represents the root of an HTML document.
Authors are encouraged to specify a lang attribute on the root
html element, giving the document's language. This aids speech synthesis tools to
determine what pronunciations to use, translation tools to determine what rules to use, and so
forth.
The html element in the following example declares that the document's language
is English.
<!DOCTYPE html>
< html lang = "en" >
< head >
< title > Swapping Songs</ title >
</ head >
< body >
< h1 > Swapping Songs</ h1 >
< p > Tonight I swapped some of the songs I wrote with some friends, who
gave me some of the songs they wrote. I love sharing my music.</ p >
</ body >
</ html > head elementSupport in all current engines.
html element.iframe srcdoc document or if title information is available from a higher-level protocol: Zero or more elements of metadata content, of which no more than one is a title element and no more than one is a base element.title element and no more than one is a base element.head element's start tag can be omitted if
the element is empty, or if the first thing inside the head element is an
element.head element's end tag can be omitted if
the head element is not immediately followed by ASCII whitespace or a
comment.HTMLHeadElement.The head element represents a collection of metadata for the
Document.
The collection of metadata in a head element can be large or small. Here is an
example of a very short one:
<!doctype html>
< html lang = en >
< head >
< title > A document with a short head</ title >
</ head >
< body >
...Here is an example of a longer one:
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
< HTML LANG = "EN" >
< HEAD >
< META CHARSET = "UTF-8" >
< BASE HREF = "https://www.example.com/" >
< TITLE > An application with a long head</ TITLE >
< LINK REL = "STYLESHEET" HREF = "default.css" >
< LINK REL = "STYLESHEET ALTERNATE" HREF = "big.css" TITLE = "Big Text" >
< SCRIPT SRC = "support.js" ></ SCRIPT >
< META NAME = "APPLICATION-NAME" CONTENT = "Long headed application" >
</ HEAD >
< BODY >
...The title element is a required child in most situations, but when a
higher-level protocol provides title information, e.g., in the subject line of an email when HTML
is used as an email authoring format, the title element can be omitted.
title elementSupport in all current engines.
head element containing no other title elements.HTMLTitleElement.The title element represents the document's title or name. Authors
should use titles that identify their documents even when they are used out of context, for
example in a user's history or bookmarks, or in search results. The document's title is often
different from its first heading, since the first heading does not have to stand alone when taken
out of context.
There must be no more than one title element per document.
If it's reasonable for the Document to have no title, then the
title element is probably not required. See the head element's content
model for a description of when the element is required.
title.text [ = value ]Returns the child text content of the element.
Can be set, to replace the element's children with the given value.
Here are some examples of appropriate titles, contrasted with the top-level headings that might be used on those same pages.
< title > Introduction to The Mating Rituals of Bees</ title >
...
< h1 > Introduction</ h1 >
< p > This companion guide to the highly successful
< cite > Introduction to Medieval Bee-Keeping</ cite > book is...The next page might be a part of the same site. Note how the title describes the subject matter unambiguously, while the first heading assumes the reader knows what the context is and therefore won't wonder if the dances are Salsa or Waltz:
< title > Dances used during bee mating rituals</ title >
...
< h1 > The Dances</ h1 > The string to use as the document's title is given by the document.title IDL attribute.
base elementSupport in all current engines.
head element containing no other base elements.href — Document base URL
target — Default navigable for hyperlink navigation and form submission
HTMLBaseElement.The base element allows authors to specify the document base URL for
the purposes of parsing URLs, and the name of the default
navigable for the purposes of following hyperlinks. The element does not
represent any content beyond this information.
There must be no more than one base element per document.
A base element must have either an href
attribute, a target attribute, or both.
The href content
attribute, if specified, must contain a valid URL potentially surrounded by
spaces.
A base element, if it has an href attribute,
must come before any other elements in the tree that have attributes defined as taking URLs.
The target attribute,
if specified, must contain a valid navigable target name or keyword, which specifies
which navigable is to be used as the default when hyperlinks and forms in the
Document cause navigation.
A base element, if it has a target
attribute, must come before any elements in the tree that represent hyperlinks.
In this example, a base element is used to set the document base
URL:
<!DOCTYPE html>
< html lang = "en" >
< head >
< title > This is an example for the < base> element</ title >
< base href = "https://www.example.com/news/index.html" >
</ head >
< body >
< p > Visit the < a href = "archives.html" > archives</ a > .</ p >
</ body >
</ html > The link in the above example would be a link to "https://www.example.com/news/archives.html".
link elementSupport in all current engines.
noscript element that is a child of a head element.href — Address of the hyperlink
crossorigin — How the element handles crossorigin requests
rel — Relationship between the document containing the hyperlink and the destination resource
media — Applicable media
integrity — Integrity metadata used in Subresource Integrity checks [SRI]
hreflang — Language of the linked resource
type — Hint for the type of the referenced resource
referrerpolicy — Referrer policy for fetches initiated by the element
sizes — Sizes of the icons (for rel="icon")
imagesrcset — Images to use in different situations, e.g., high-resolution displays, small monitors, etc. (for rel="preload")
imagesizes — Image sizes for different page layouts (for rel="preload")
as — Potential destination for a preload request (for rel="preload" and rel="modulepreload")
blocking — Whether the element is potentially render-blocking
color — Color to use when customizing a site's icon (for rel="mask-icon")
disabled — Whether the link is disabled
fetchpriority — Sets the priority for fetches initiated by the element
title attribute has special semantics on this element: Title of the link; CSS style sheet set name
HTMLLinkElement.The link element allows authors to link their document to other resources.
The address of the link(s) is given by the href attribute. If the href attribute is present, then its value must be a valid
non-empty URL potentially surrounded by spaces. One or both of the href or imagesrcset
attributes must be present.
The types of link indicated (the relationships) are given by the value of the rel attribute, which, if present, must have a
value that is a unordered set of unique space-separated tokens. The allowed keywords and their meanings are defined in a later section.
A link element must have either a rel
attribute or an itemprop attribute, but not both.
If a link element has an itemprop attribute,
or has a rel attribute that contains only keywords that are
body-ok, then the element is said to be allowed in the body. This means
that the element can be used where phrasing content is expected.
If the rel attribute is used, the element can
only sometimes be used in the body of the page. When used with the itemprop attribute, the element can be used both in the
head element and in the body of the page, subject to the constraints of
the microdata model.
Two categories of links can be created using the link element: links to external resources and hyperlinks. The link types section defines
whether a particular link type is an external resource or a hyperlink. One link
element can create multiple links (of which some might be external resource links and some might be hyperlinks); exactly which and how many links are created depends on the
keywords given in the rel attribute. User agents must process
the links on a per-link basis, not a per-element basis.
Each link created for a link element is handled separately. For
instance, if there are two link elements with rel="stylesheet",
they each count as a separate external resource, and each is affected by its own attributes
independently. Similarly, if a single link element has a rel attribute with the value next stylesheet,
it creates both a hyperlink (for the next keyword) and
an external resource link (for the stylesheet
keyword), and they are affected by other attributes (such as media or title)
differently.
For example, the following link element creates two hyperlinks (to the same page):
< link rel = "author license" href = "/about" > The two links created by this element are one whose semantic is that the target page has information about the current page's author, and one whose semantic is that the target page has information regarding the license under which the current page is provided.
Hyperlinks created with the link element and its
rel attribute apply to the whole document. This contrasts with
the rel attribute of a and area
elements, which indicates the type of a link whose context is given by the link's location within
the document.
Unlike those created by a and area elements, hyperlinks created by link elements are not displayed as
part of the document by default, in user agents that support the suggested
default rendering. And even if they are force-displayed using CSS, they have no
activation behavior. Instead, they primarily provide semantic information which might
be used by the page or by other software that consumes the page's contents. Additionally, the user
agent can provide
its own UI for following such hyperlinks.
The exact behavior for links to external resources depends on the exact relationship, as defined for the relevant link type.
The crossorigin
attribute is a CORS settings attribute. It is intended for use with external resource links.
The media attribute
says which media the resource applies to. The value must be a valid media query
list.
Support in all current engines.
The integrity
attribute represents the integrity
metadata for requests which this element is responsible for. The value is text. The
attribute must only be specified on link elements that have a rel attribute that contains the stylesheet, preload, or modulepreload keyword. [SRI]
The hreflang
attribute on the link element has the same semantics as the hreflang attribute on the a
element.
The type attribute
gives the MIME type of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be
a valid MIME type string.
For external resource links, the type attribute is used as a hint to user agents so that they can
avoid fetching resources they do not support.
The referrerpolicy attribute is a referrer policy
attribute. It is intended for use with external
resource links, where it helps set the referrer policy used when fetching and processing the linked resource.
[REFERRERPOLICY]
The title attribute
gives the title of the link. With one exception, it is purely advisory. The value is text. The
exception is for style sheet links that are in a document tree, for which the title attribute defines CSS
style sheet sets.
The title attribute on link
elements differs from the global title attribute of most other
elements in that a link without a title does not inherit the title of the parent element: it
merely has no title.
The imagesrcset
attribute may be present, and is a srcset attribute.
The imagesrcset and href attributes (if width
descriptors are not used) together contribute the image
sources to the source set.
If the imagesrcset attribute is present and has any
image candidate strings using a width
descriptor, the imagesizes attribute must also be present, and is a
sizes attribute. The imagesizes attribute
contributes the source size to the source set.
The imagesrcset and imagesizes attributes must only be specified on
link elements that have both a rel attribute that
specifies the preload keyword, as well as an as attribute in the "image" state.
These attributes allow preloading the appropriate resource that is later used by an
img element that has the corresponding values for its srcset and sizes
attributes:
< link rel = "preload" as = "image"
imagesrcset = "wolf_400px.jpg 400w, wolf_800px.jpg 800w, wolf_1600px.jpg 1600w"
imagesizes = "50vw" >
<!-- ... later, or perhaps inserted dynamically ... -->
< img src = "wolf.jpg" alt = "A rad wolf"
srcset = "wolf_400px.jpg 400w, wolf_800px.jpg 800w, wolf_1600px.jpg 1600w"
sizes = "50vw" > Note how we omit the href attribute, as it would only
be relevant for browsers that do not support imagesrcset, and in those cases it would likely cause the
incorrect image to be preloaded.
The imagesrcset attribute can be combined with the
media attribute to preload the appropriate resource
selected from a picture element's sources, for art direction:
< link rel = "preload" as = "image"
imagesrcset = "dog-cropped-1x.jpg, dog-cropped-2x.jpg 2x"
media = "(max-width: 800px)" >
< link rel = "preload" as = "image"
imagesrcset = "dog-wide-1x.jpg, dog-wide-2x.jpg 2x"
media = "(min-width: 801px)" >
<!-- ... later, or perhaps inserted dynamically ... -->
< picture >
< source srcset = "dog-cropped-1x.jpg, dog-cropped-2x.jpg 2x"
media = "(max-width: 800px)" >
< img src = "dog-wide-1x.jpg" srcset = "dog-wide-2x.jpg 2x"
alt = "An awesome dog" >
</ picture > The sizes attribute
gives the sizes of icons for visual media. Its value, if present, is merely advisory. If specified, the attribute must have a value that is an unordered set of
unique space-separated tokens which are ASCII case-insensitive. Each value
must be either an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "any", or a value that consists of two valid non-negative integers that do not have a leading U+0030 DIGIT
ZERO (0) character and that are separated by a single U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X or U+0058 LATIN
CAPITAL LETTER X character. The attribute must only be specified on link elements
that have a rel attribute that specifies the icon keyword or the apple-touch-icon keyword.
The apple-touch-icon keyword is a registered extension to the predefined set of link types, but user
agents are not required to support it in any way.
The as attribute
specifies the potential destination for a
preload request for the resource given by the href attribute.
It is an enumerated attribute. Each potential destination is a keyword for this
attribute, mapping to a state of the same name. The attribute must be specified on
link elements that have a rel attribute that
contains the preload keyword. It may be specified on
link elements that have a rel attribute that
contains the modulepreload keyword; in such cases it must
have a value which is a script-like
destination. For other link elements, it must not be specified.
The attribute does not have a missing value
default or invalid value default, meaning that invalid
or missing values for the attribute map to no state. This is accounted for in the processing
model. For preload links, both conditions are an error; for
modulepreload links, a missing value will be treated as
"script".
The blocking
attribute is a blocking attribute. It is used by link types stylesheet and expect, and it must only be specified on link elements
that have a rel attribute containing those keywords.
The color attribute is
used with the mask-icon link type. The attribute must only be specified on
link elements that have a rel attribute that
contains the mask-icon keyword. The value must be a string that matches the
CSS <color> production, defining a suggested color that user agents can use to
customize the display of the icon that the user sees when they pin your site.
This specification does not have any user agent requirements for the color attribute.
The mask-icon keyword is a registered extension to the predefined set of link types, but user
agents are not required to support it in any way.
link elements have an associated explicitly enabled boolean. It is
initially false.
The disabled
attribute is a boolean attribute that is used with the stylesheet link type. The attribute must only be specified on
link elements that have a rel attribute that
contains the stylesheet keyword.
Whenever the disabled attribute is removed, set the
link element's explicitly enabled attribute to true.
Removing the disabled attribute dynamically, e.g.,
using document.querySelector("link").removeAttribute("disabled"), will
fetch and apply the style sheet:
< link disabled rel = "alternate stylesheet" href = "css/pooh" > The fetchpriority attribute is a fetch
priority attribute that is intended for use with external resource links, where it is used to set the priority used when fetching and processing the linked
resource.
link
elementInteractive user agents may provide users with a means to follow the hyperlinks created using the link element, somewhere
within their user interface. Such invocations of the follow
the hyperlink algorithm must set the userInvolvement argument to "browser UI". The exact interface is not defined by this
specification, but it could include the following information (obtained from the element's
attributes, again as defined below), in some form or another (possibly simplified), for each
hyperlink created with each link element in the document:
rel attribute)title
attribute).href
attribute).hreflang
attribute).media
attribute).User agents could also include other information, such as the type of the resource (as given by
the type attribute).
meta
element