HOME HTML CSS XML JAVASCRIPT ASP PHP SQL MORE...

W3C Tutorial

W3C HOME
W3C Introduction
W3C Process
W3C HTML
W3C XHTML
W3C XML
W3C CSS
W3C XSL
W3C Schema
W3C XPath
W3C XQuery
W3C DOM
W3C SOAP
W3C WSDL
W3C RDF
W3C Other

W3C HTML Activities

« Previous

Next Chapter »

HTML is the universal markup language for the Web.

HTML Tutorials

To learn more about HTML, read our HTML tutorial.

HTML Versions

HTML 2.0

HTML 2.0 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force HTML Working Group in 1996.

HTML 2.0 is an outdated version of HTML. For a Web developer there is no need to study the HTML 2.0 standard.

HTML 3.2

HTML 3.2 became a W3C Recommendation 14. January 1997. HTML 3.2 added new features such as fonts, tables, applets, superscripts, subscripts and more, to the existing HTML 2.0 standard.

One of the elements added to the HTML 3.2 standard, was the <font> tag. This tag introduced unnecessary complexity to the important task of separating HTML content (text) from its presentation (style). The <font> tag became deprecated in HTML 4.0.

HTML 4.0

HTML 4.0 became a W3C Recommendation 18. December 1997. A second release was issued on 24. April 1998 with only some editorial corrections.

The most important feature of HTML 4.0 was the introduction of style sheets (CSS).

Our W3C CSS chapter summarizes the W3C CSS activities.

HTML 4.01

HTML 4.01 became a W3C Recommendation 24. December 1999.

HTML 4.01 was a minor update of corrections and bug-fixes from HTML 4.0.

XHTML 1.0

XHTML 1.0 reformulates HTML 4.01 in XML.

XHTML 1.0 became a W3C Recommendation 20. January 2000.

Our W3C XHTML chapter summarizes the W3C XHTML activities.

HTML 5

On January 22nd, 2008, W3C published a working draft for HTML 5.

HTML 5 improves interoperability, and reduces development costs, by making precise rules on how to handle all HTML elements, and how to recover from errors.

Some of the new features in HTML 5 are functions for embedding audio, video, graphics, client-side data storage, and interactive documents.

HTML 5 also contains new elements like <nav>, <header>, <footer>, and <figure>.

The HTML 5 working group includes AOL, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia, Opera, and many hundred other vendors.

W3C HTML Specifications and Timeline

Specification	Recommendation
HTML 3.2	14. January 1997
HTML 4.0	24. April 1998
HTML 4.01	24. December 1999
HTML 5	19. October 2010 (latest draft)

The XHTML specifications and timeline are found in the next chapter.

W3C Reference:

W3C HTML Home Page