The text on a web page can be altered using a variety of HTML tags. There are six levels of header tags in HTML, ranging from h1-h6. The <h1> tag is the largest header tag, and the <h6> tag is the smallest. Other visual tags include <b> for bold, <i> for italic, <sup> for a superscript, etc. HTML tags can also change the structure of text on a page. For example, the tag <br> allows for a line break to be added between text. Similarly, the <hr> tag creates a space with a horizontal rule between text. If a designer wants to separate a long quote from the rest of the text, they could use the <blockquote> tag to do so. These are merely a few of the HTML tags that can be utilized to alter the structure and design of text on a page.
Color is shown on a computer screen through the use of thousands of tiny colored pixels, with every pixel’s color expressed as some sort of mix of red, green, and blue. These colors can be represented and chosen in three different ways: RGB values, Hex codes, and color names. With RGB values, different values of red, green, and blue are represented by numbers between 0 and 255. For Hex codes, every color is represented with its own hexadecimal code (such as #66cdaa). Colors can also be represented by their names, of which 147 are supported by browsers. An example of this would be the color MediumAquaMarine. RGB, Hex, and color names are all effected by hue, saturation and brightness. Hue is essentially just color, while saturation is the amount of gray in a color, and brightness is the amount of black in a color.
The foreground color of text can be determined by using the color property in CSS. As mentioned, this color can be represented as an RGB value, hex code, or color name. A new way to specify colors has been introduced as well, called HSLA color. The background color of an element will appear in the box that the element is located in. For example, if the background-color CSS property is used on h1 text, the text boxes that all h1 text is in will change color. It is very important to choose foreground and background colors that have medium contrast between each other. Too little contrast can make text impossible to read for users with vision impairments, as well as users with old, low quality monitors. On the other hand, too much contrast can make reading long pages of text difficult for many users. A happy medium of contrast is the best option for the use of color on a webpage.