HTML <!DOCTYPE> Declaration


Example

<!DOCTYPE html>
 <html>
 <head>
 <title>Title of the document</title>
 </head>

 <body>
 The content of the document......
 </body>

 </html>
Виж примера

Definition and Usage

All HTML documents must start with a <!DOCTYPE> declaration.

The declaration is not an HTML tag. It is an "information" to the browser about what document type to expect.

In HTML 5, the declaration is simple:

<div> <!DOCTYPE html> </div>

Browser Support

Element
<!DOCTYPE> Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Older HTML Documents

In older documents (HTML 4 or XHTML), the declaration is more complicated because the declaration must refer to a DTD (Document Type Definition).

HTML 4.01:

<div> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> </div>

XHTML 1.1:

<div> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> </div>

HTML Elements and Doctypes

Look at our table of all HTML elements, and what Doctype each element appears in.

Tips and Notes

Tip: The <!DOCTYPE> declaration is NOT case sensitive.

Examples

<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<!DocType html>
 
<!Doctype html>
 
<!doctype html>