1. Introduction # T

This document is a non-normative reference that provides details to help producers of HTML content create conformant documents, and to help others check the conformance of existing documents. It has the following design goals:

• to describe the syntax and structure of the HTML language
• to describe the semantics of HTML elements and their attributes (that is, to describe what the elements and attributes represent)
• to be clear and unambiguous
• to be as concise and readable as possible

The first two of the above design goals make this reference similar in scope to the [HTML5 for Web Authors] subset of the normative [HTML5] full specification.

Certain purposes are intentionally out of scope for this reference document; specifically, it:

• does not provide any descriptions of implementation conformance criteria for HTML consumers; in particular, it does not attempt to explain how Web browsers and other user agents are meant to process documents
• does not provide detailed information on APIs related to processing of HTML content by HTML consumers.

For implementation conformance criteria for HTML consumers and detailed information on related APIs, instead see the [HTML5] full specification.

Finally, because this document is intended for use strictly as a reference, it does not attempt to also be a tutorial or “how to” authoring guide.