HTML Explained - What Does It Do?

Web designers are always using abbreviations like HTML, CSS or PHP when discussing putting websites together, these are examples of terms specialised to web design just as any other business sector has its products, systems and equipment that no one else uses. These particular abbreviations all have something in common though; they are examples of programming and coding languages used to build websites, languages humans use to tell computers, smartphones and iPads how to display a web design and make it function.

HTML is the oldest of these languages, the first ever computer code dedicated to creating web pages. Standing for Hyper-Text Mark-up Language it’s primary function over the last 20 or so years has been as a blueprint computers use to turn a collection of image and text files into a complete website.

Some of the core web design functions include;

• Creating paragraph and line breaks in website copywriting
• Setting colours of text and backgrounds
• Making web links work and go to the right places
• Positioning images and video files on the page
• Breaking up pages into columns and sections
• Providing on-page SEO such as META tags and image titles
• Providing a page title and description for search engines

HTML is a very simple computer language to learn and because of its simplicity HTML files are very small and download very quickly, making it ideal as the core computer language of the web.

Over the years it has gone through several revisions to add features and create international standards ensuring a website designed in the UK will be just as functional and look exactly the same wherever it is viewed using whatever web browser. The latest version is HTML 5, recently introduced after a very long run for HTML 4.

Version 5 adds quite a number of exciting new features which have become staple design elements of the web but previously have had to be handled by a range of languages, complicating things considerably and often forcing web designers to conceive all sorts of work arounds and solutions to what should be quite simple problems such as adding animations or playing a video files. It means that websites on the whole can now provide such features faster, more fluidly and with some interesting interactive features that will make for a better web experience all round.

All of our web design work is built to be HTML 5 compatible and we regularly create more complex bespoke designs for clients looking for a unique feel to the way their website is visually presented; get in contact if you want to discuss ways we could modernise your web design!