Attributes

  • HTML elements can have attributes
  • Attributes provide additional information about an element
  • Attributes are always specified in the start tag
  • Attributes come in name/value pairs like: name="value"

lang

The document language can be declared in the <html> tag. The language is declared in the lang attribute. Declaring a language is important for accessibility applications (screen readers) and search engines.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
<body>

<h1>My First Heading</h1>
<p>My first paragraph.</p>

</body>
</html>

title

HTML paragraphs are defined with the <p> tag. The <p> element has a title attribute. 

<p title="About W3Schools">
W3Schools is a web developer's site.
It provides tutorials and references covering
many aspects of web programming,
including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, SQL, PHP, ASP, etc.
</p>

href

HTML links are defined with the <a> tag. The link address is specified in the href attribute. <a href="http://www.w3schools.com">This is a link</a>

size

HTML images are defined with the <img> tag. The filename of the source (src), and the size of the image (width and height) are all provided as attributes. <img src="w3schools.jpg" width="104" height="142">

alt

The alt attribute specifies an alternative text to be used, when an HTML element cannot be displayed. The value of the attribute can be read by "screen readers". This way, someone "listening" to the webpage, i.e. a blind person, can "hear" the element. <img src="w3schools.jpg" alt="W3Schools.com" width="104" height="142">

Summary

  • All HTML elements can have attributes
  • The HTML title attribute provides additional "tool-tip" information
  • The HTML href attribute provides address information for links
  • The HTML width and height attributes provide size information for images
  • The HTML alt attribute provides text for screen readers
  • At W3Schools we always use lowercase HTML attribute names
  • At W3Schools we always quote attributes with double quotes
Attribute Description
alt Specifies an alternative text for an image
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)