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:
<!DOCTYPE html>
Browser Support
| Element | Chrome | Internet explorer | Mozilla Firefox | Safari | Opera |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <!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:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
XHTML 1.1:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
Example for HTML Doctype Declaration:
<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Title of the document</title> </head> <body> The content of the document...... </body> </html>
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