.. include:: ../header.txt

=====================
Docutils HTML writers
=====================

.. contents::

html
----

:front-end: rst2html_

The writer name `html` is an alias for the default Docutils HTML writer.

The default may change with the development of HTML, browsers, Docutils,
and the web.
Currently, `html` is mapped to html4css1_, it will become an alias for
html5_ in Docutils 2.0.

* Use ``get_writer_by_name('html')`` or the rst2html_ front end, if you
  want the output to be up-to-date automatically.

* Use a specific writer name or front end, if you depend on stability of the
  generated HTML code, e.g. because you use a custom style sheet or
  post-processing that may break otherwise.


html4css1
---------

:aliases:    html4, html_
:front-ends: rst2html4_, rst2html_
:config:     `[html4css1 writer]`_

The HTML Writer module, ``docutils/writers/html4css1.py``, was the first
Docutils writer and up to release 0.13 the only official HTML writer.

The output conforms to the `XHTML 1 Transitional`_ specification. It does
not validate as `HTML 4.01 Transitional`_ due to the closing of empty tags
required in XML but not allowed in HTML 4. However, the output follows the
`HTML Compatibility Guidelines`_ for proper rendering on most HTML user
agents.

Correct rendering depends on a CSS_ style sheet. A reference style sheet,
`html4css1.css`_, is provided and used by default.

To support the `Internet Explorer` (with a market share of about 90% around
2002, the time this writer was written), documents contain some hard-coded
formatting hints and are tagged as "text/html" (instead of
"application/xhtml+xml"). [#IE]_

.. [#IE] Conformance to `CSS 2.1`_ has been added in IE 8 (2009), support
   for XHTML in IE 9 (2011).

.. _rst2html: tools.html#rst2html
.. _rst2html4: tools.html#rst2html4
.. _[html4css1 writer]: config.html#html4css1-writer
.. _html4css1.css: ../../docutils/writers/html4css1/html4css1.css

pep_html
~~~~~~~~

:front-end: ``docutils  --reader=pep --writer=pep_html``
:config:    `[pep_html writer]`_

This is a special writer for the generation of `Python Enhancement
Proposals`_ (PEPs). It inherits from html4css1_ and adds some `PEP-specific
options`_, a style sheet and template. It works best in combination with
the specialised "pep_html" reader.

.. _PEP-specific options:
.. _[pep_html writer]: config.html#pep-html-writer
.. _Python Enhancement Proposals: https://peps.python.org/

s5_html
~~~~~~~

:alias:     s5
:front-end: rst2s5_
:config:    `[s5_html writer]`_

The `s5` writer inherits from html4css1_. It produces XHTML for use with
S5_, the “Simple Standards-based Slide Show System” by Eric Meyer.  See
`Easy Slide Shows With reST & S5`_ for details.

.. _rst2s5: tools.html#rst2s5
.. _[s5_html writer]: config.html#s5-html-writer
.. _Easy Slide Shows With reST & S5: slide-shows.html
.. _S5: http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/
.. _theme: tools.html#themes


html5
-----

:aliases: _`html5_polyglot`
:front-end: rst2html5_
:config: `[html5 writer]`_

The ``html5_polyglot`` writer generates `polyglot HTML`_ [#]_ output, valid
XML [#safetext]_ that is compatible with `HTML5`_. New features and elements
are used if they are widely supported.
See the `HTML5 test page`_ (and the sources `html5-features.txt`_ and
`html5-text-level-tags.txt`_) for further differences to the html4css1_
writer.

There is no hard-coded formatting information in the HTML document.
Correct rendering of elements not directly supported by HTML depends on a
CSS_ style sheet. The provided style sheet minimal.css_ defines required
styling rules; plain.css_ and responsive.css_ add optional rules for
better legibility. Adaption of the layout is possible with `custom style
sheets`_. [#safetext]_

New in Docutils 0.13

.. [#] see also `Benefits of polyglot XHTML5`_
.. [#safetext] The validity of raw HTML and custom stylesheets must be
   ensured by the author.
.. _HTML5 test page: https://docutils.sourceforge.io/test/functional/
    expected/standalone_rst_html5.html#changes-to-the-html4css1-writer
.. _html5-features.txt: https://docutils.sourceforge.io/test/functional/
    input/data/html5-features.txt
.. _html5-text-level-tags.txt: https://docutils.sourceforge.io/test/functional/
    input/data/html5-text-level-tags.txt
.. _rst2html5: tools.html#rst2html5
.. _[html5 writer]: config.html#html5-writer
.. _minimal.css: ../../docutils/writers/html5_polyglot/minimal.css
.. _plain.css: ../../docutils/writers/html5_polyglot/plain.css
.. _responsive.css: ../../docutils/writers/html5_polyglot/responsive.css
.. _custom style sheets: ../howto/html-stylesheets.html
.. _viewable with any browser: http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign
.. _Benefits of polyglot XHTML5: http://xmlplease.com/xhtml/xhtml5polyglot/


Overview
--------

================ =========== ============== ================= ===========
name             aliases     `front-end`_   HTML version      CSS version
================ =========== ============== ================= ===========
html4css1_       html4,      rst2html4,     `XHTML 1          `CSS 1`_
                 html_       rst2html       Transitional`_

pep_html_        ..          rstpep2html    `XHTML 1          `CSS 1`_
                                            Transitional`_

s5_html_         s5          rst2s5         `XHTML 1          `CSS 1`_
                                            Transitional`_

html5_polyglot_  html5       rst2html5      `HTML5`_          `CSS 3`_

================ =========== ============== ================= ===========

For additional alternatives, see the `Docutils link list`__ and the
sandbox_.

__ https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/user/links.html
   #website-generators-and-html-variants
.. _sandbox: ../dev/policies.html#the-sandbox


References
----------

_`HTML5`
   `HTML5, A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML`,
   W3C Recommendation, 28 October 2014.
   https://www.w3.org/TR/2014/REC-html5-20141028/

_`XHTML 1.1`
   `XHTML™ 1.1 - Module-based XHTML - Second Edition`,
   W3C Recommendation, 23 November 2010.
   https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/

_`XHTML 1 Transitional`
   `Transitional version`_ of:
   `XHTML™ 1.0 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second
   Edition)`, `A Reformulation of HTML 4 in XML 1.0`,
   W3C Recommendation, 26 January 2000, revised 1 August 2002.
   https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/

_`XHTML Basic`
   `XHTML™ Basic 1.1 - Second Edition`,
   W3C Recommendation, 23 November 2010.
   https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-basic/

.. _transitional version:
   https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#a_dtd_XHTML-1.0-Transitional

_`HTML 4.01 Transitional`
  Transitional version of:
  `HTML 4.01 Specification`, W3C Recommendation 24 December 1999.
  https://www.w3.org/TR/html4/

.. _`CSS 1`:

_`CSS Level 1`:
  The features defined in the `CSS1 specification`_, but using the syntax
  and definitions in the `CSS 2.1`_ specification.

_`CSS 2.1` `Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification`,
  W3C Recommendation 07 June 2011.
  https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/

_`CSS 3`:
  CSS Level 3 builds on CSS Level 2 module by module, using the CSS2.1
  specification as its core.

  Specifications: https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/specs.en.html

  Validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

.. other references
   ----------------

.. _HTML Compatibility Guidelines: https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#guidelines
.. _CSS: https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS/
.. _CSS1 specification: https://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-CSS1-20080411/
.. _polyglot HTML: https://www.w3.org/TR/html-polyglot/

   .. Beware. This specification is no longer in active maintenance and the
      HTML Working Group does not intend to maintain it further.

.. Appendix


      On the question of Polyglot markup, there seems to be little
      consensus. One line of argument suggests that, to the extent that it
      is practical to obey the Robustness principle, it makes sense to do
      so. That is, if you're generating HTML markup for the web, and you can
      generate Polyglot markup that is also directly consumable as XML, you
      should do so. Another line of argument suggests that even under the
      most optimistic of projections, so tiny a fraction of the web will
      ever be written in Polyglot that there's no practical benefit to
      pursuing it as a general strategy for consuming documents from the
      web. If you want to consume HTML content, use an HTML parser that
      produces an XML-compatible DOM or event stream.

      -- https://www.w3.org/TR/html-xml-tf-report/#conclusions

  Further development

  On 2016-05-25, David Goodger wrote:

  > In addition, I'd actually like to see the HTML writer(s) with
  > fully-parameterized classes, i.e. removing hard-coded *classes* as well as
  > formatting. This way, any user who wants to (e.g.) write reST for use with
  > Bootstrap can easily work around any naming conflicts.

.. _front-end: tools.html
