Markup Language

A Web page consists of two things:

1. The content—the text (and other things) you want the viewer to see, and
2. HTML tags that describe the functional role of each part of the content.

This is the idea of a markup language: a markup language describes the functional roles of various sections of content but leaves the exact layout up to the Web browser.

This is how things were done in ancient times (pre computer.) An author would create the content (possibly in handwritting), a publisher would mark up the text with symbols showing how it was to be formatted, and a printer would follow the instructions in setting the type. Content creation was a separate task from document design.

The advantage of using functional markup is that different browsers on different types of computers can format the content as is best for them (and as their users have chosen.) The same Web page can (ideally) be viewed by any browser on any computer.