What is HTML?

HTML, HyperText Markup Language, describes the content and the layout of a page to be published on the Web. A browser interprets such a page to display it to the user.

Besides layout markup, HTML also allows the inclusion of images, sounds, animations and scripts in various languages (JavaScript, ASP, PHP).

The foundations of HTML were laid at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, in around 1990 when the need arose for a powerful and easy to use system for sending information to various kinds of computer terminals. This led to the idea of a language for quick text formatting.