HTML Tag
The tag defines the relationship between the current document and an external resource.
The tag is most often used to link to external style sheets or to add a favicon to your website.
The element is an empty element, it contains attributes only.
Browser Support
Attributes
| Attribute | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| crossorigin | anonymous use-credentials | Specifies how the element handles cross-origin requests |
| href | URL | Specifies the location of the linked document |
| hreflang | language_code | Specifies the language of the text in the linked document |
| media | media_query | Specifies on what device the linked document will be displayed |
| referrerpolicy | no-referrer no-referrer-when-downgrade origin origin-when-cross-origin unsafe-url | Specifies which referrer to use when fetching the resource |
| rel | alternate author dns-prefetch help icon license next pingback preconnect prefetch preload prerender prev search stylesheet | Required. Specifies the relationship between the current document and the linked document |
| sizes | HeightxWidth any | Specifies the size of the linked resource. Only for rel=»icon» |
| title | Defines a preferred or an alternate stylesheet | |
| type | media_type | Specifies the media type of the linked document |
Global Attributes
Event Attributes
Related Pages
Default CSS Settings
Most browsers will display the element with the following default values:
COLOR PICKER
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HTML Links: How to create Links to other Web Pages
This article explains how to create a link from one page to another. It also outlines the different types of hyperlinks.
Links, otherwise known as , are defined using the tag — otherwise known as the element.
Hypertext references can use URLS, URLs, or URLs.
This refers to a URL where the full path is provided. For example:
This refers to a URL where the path, relative to the current location, is provided.
For example, if we want to reference the https://www.quackit.com/html/tutorial/ URL, and our current location is https://www.quackit.com/html/ , we would use this:
This refers to a URL where the path, relative to the domain’s root, is provided.
For example, if we want to reference the https://www.quackit.com/html/tutorial/ URL, and the current location is https://www.quackit.com/html/ , we could use this:
The forward slash indicates the domain’s root. No matter where your file is located, you can always use this method to specify the path, even if you don’t know what the domain name will eventually be (as long as you know the full path from the root).
Link Targets
You can nominate whether to open the URL in a new window or the current window. You do this with the target attribute. For example, target=»_blank» opens the URL in a new window.
The target attribute can have the following possible values:
| _blank | Opens the URL in a new browser window. |
| _self | Loads the URL in the current browser window. |
| _parent | Loads the URL into the parent frame (still within the current browser window). This is only applicable when using frames. |
| _top | Loads the URL in the current browser window, but cancelling out any frames. Therefore, if frames were being used, they aren’t any longer. |
Jump Links
You can make your links «jump» to other sections within the same page (or another page). These used to be called «named anchors», but they’re often referred to as jump links, bookmarks, or fragment identifiers.
Here’s how to link to the same page:
Add an ID to the Link Target
Add an ID to the part of the page that you want the user to end up. To do this, use the id attribute. The value should be some short descriptive text. The id attribute is a commonly used attribute in HTML.
Create the Hyperlink
Now create the hyperlink (that the user will click on). This is done by using the id of the link target, preceded by a hash ( # ) symbol:
So these two pieces of code are placed in different parts of the document. Something like this:
It doesn’t have to be the same page. You can use this method to jump to an ID of any page. To do this, simply add the destination URL before the hash ( # ) symbol. Example:
Of course, this assumes that there’s an ID with that value on the page.
Email Links
You can create a hyperlink to an email address. To do this, use the mailto attribute in your anchor tag.
Clicking on this link should result in your default email client opening up with the email address already filled out.
You can go a step further than this. You can auto-complete the subject line for your users, and even the body of the email. You do this appending subject and body parameters to the email address.
Base href
You can specify a default URL for all links on the page to start with. You do this by placing the base tag (in conjunction with the href attribute) in the document’s .