.. include:: ../header.txt
=====================
Docutils HTML writers
=====================
.. contents::
html
----
`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.py_ 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.py, rst2html.py_
: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.py: tools.html#rst2html-py
.. _[html4css1 writer]: config.html#html4css1-writer
.. _html4css1.css: ../../docutils/writers/html4css1/html4css1.css
pep_html
~~~~~~~~
:front-end: rstpep2html.py_
: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. The front-end uses also a specialised
reader.
.. _rstpep2html.py: tools.html#rstpep2html-py
.. _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.py_
: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.py: tools.html#rst2s5-py
.. _[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.py_
: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.
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.
.. _rst2html5.py: tools.html#rst2html5-py
.. _[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.py, `XHTML 1 `CSS 1`_
html_ rst2html.py Transitional`_
pep_html_ .. rstpep2html.py `XHTML 1 `CSS 1`_
Transitional`_
s5_html_ s5 rst2s5.py `XHTML 1 `CSS 1`_
Transitional`_
html5_polyglot_ html5 rst2html5.py `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
Generated by dwww version 1.15 on Sat May 18 14:12:31 CEST 2024.