HTML Attributes
- All HTML elements can have attributes
- Attributes provide additional information about an element
- Attributes are always specified in the start tag
- Attributes usually come in name/value pairs like: name="value"
The href Attribute
HTML links are defined with the
<a> tag. The link address is specified in the href attribute:| <a href="http://aamfoundation.ml">This is a link</a> |
You will learn more about links and the
<a> tag later in this tutorial.The src Attribute
HTML images are defined with the
<img> tag.
The filename of the image source is specified in the
src attribute:| <img src="wallpaper.jpg"> |
The width and height Attributes
Images in HTML have a set of size attributes, which specifies the width and height of the image:
| <img src="wallpaper.jpg" width="500" height="600"> |
The image size is specified in pixels: width="500" means 500 pixels wide.
The alt Attribute
The
alt attribute specifies an alternative text to be used, when an image cannot be displayed.
The value of the attribute can be read by screen readers. This way, someone "listening" to the webpage, e.g. a vision impaired person, can "hear" the element.
| <img src="wallpaper.jpg" alt="Girl with a jacket"> |
The
alt attribute is also useful if the image does not exist:| See what happens if we try to display an image that does not exist: <img src="img_typo.jpg" alt="Girl with a jacket"> |
The style Attribute
The
style attribute is used to specify the styling of an element, like color, font, size etc.| <p style="color:red">I am a paragraph</p> |
The lang Attribute
The language of the document can be declared in the
<html> tag.
The language is declared with the
lang attribute.
Declaring a language is important for accessibility applications (screen readers) and search engines:
| <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en-US"> <body> ..... </body> </html> |
The first two letters specify the language (en). If there is a dialect, use two more letters (US).
The title Attribute
Here, a
title attribute is added to the <p> element. The value of the title attribute will be displayed as a tooltip when you mouse over the paragraph:| <p title="I'm a tooltip"> This is a paragraph. </p> |
We Suggest: Use Lowercase Attributes
The HTML5 standard does not require lowercase attribute names.
The title attribute can be written with uppercase or lowercase like title or TITLE.
W3C recommends lowercase in HTML, and demands lowercase for stricter document types like XHTML.
At AAM Foundation we always use lowercase attribute names.
HTML Attributes
Below is an alphabetical list of some attributes often used in HTML, which you will learn more about in this tutorial:
Attribute
| Description |
alt
| Specifies an alternative text for an image, when the image cannot be displayed |
disabled
| Specifies that an input element should be disabled |
href
| Specifies the URL (web address) for a link |
id
| Specifies a unique id for an element |
src
| Specifies the URL (web address) for an image |
style
| Specifies an inline CSS style for an element |
title
| Specifies extra information about an element (displayed as a tool tip) |
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