HTML Files

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is not a file format in the classical sense, but rather a markup language used to create web pages. However, I’ll provide an overview of the HTML file format and its characteristics.

File Extension: .html or .htm

MIME Type: text/html

Format Description:

An HTML file is a plain text file that contains markup tags, which are used to describe the structure and content of a web page. The file consists of a series of elements, represented by tags, which are surrounded by angle brackets (< and >). These tags define the different parts of a web page, such as headings, paragraphs, images, links, forms, tables, etc.

Structure:

An HTML file typically consists of the following components:

  1. DOCTYPE Declaration: The first line of an HTML document, which declares the document type.
  2. HTML Element: The root element of the document, which contains all other elements.
  3. Head Element: Contains metadata about the document, such as title, character encoding, and links to external stylesheets or scripts.
  4. Body Element: Contains the content of the HTML document.

Syntax:

HTML syntax is composed of:

  1. Tags: Used to define elements, with a start tag (<element>) and an end tag (</element>).
  2. Attributes: Used to provide additional information about an element, in the form of attribute="value".
  3. Content: The text or other data contained within an element.

Example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>My Web Page</title>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Welcome to my web page!</h1>
  <p>This is a paragraph of text.</p>
</body>
</html>

This example illustrates the basic structure and syntax of an HTML file.

Characteristics:

  • Human-readable
  • Plain text format
  • Can be edited with any text editor or IDE
  • Platform-independent
  • Can be compressed using gzip or other algorithms

In summary, an HTML file is a plain text file that contains markup tags used to describe the structure and content of a web page. Its syntax is composed of tags, attributes, and content, and it has a specific structure that includes a DOCTYPE declaration, HTML element, head element, and body element.