HTML and XHTML

XHTML is HTML written as XML.

What Is XHTML?

  • XHTML stands for EXtensible HyperText Markup Language
  • XHTML is almost identical to HTML
  • XHTML is stricter than HTML
  • XHTML is HTML defined as an XML application
  • XHTML is supported by all major browsers

Why XHTML?

Many pages on the internet contain “bad” HTML.

This HTML code works fine in most browsers (even if it does not follow the HTML rules):



This is bad HTML


Bad HTML

This is a paragraph

Today’s market consists of different browser technologies. Some browsers run on computers, and some browsers run on mobile phones or other small devices. Smaller devices often lack the resources or power to interpret “bad” markup.

XML is a markup language where documents must be marked up correctly (be “well-formed”).

If you want to study XML, please read our XML tutorial.

XHTML was developed by combining the strengths of HTML and XML.

XHTML is HTML redesigned as XML.