EsimerkkiHTML

EsimerkkiHTML is a lightweight, purpose‑built markup language that extends conventional HTML with additional semantic constructs for educational and demonstration purposes. Designed in 2021 by the Finnish Institute for Web Standards, its primary goal is to provide an easy entry point for beginners while preserving compatibility with existing web technologies.

The language retains all standard HTML tags and attributes, but introduces a set of predefined component classes such as “esimerkki‑header”, “esimerkki‑card”, and “esimerkki‑footer”. These classes encapsulate common presentation patterns and can be styled using the associated EsimerkkiCSS framework, which offers a minimal set of default styles tailored to the Finnish design system.

EsimerkkiHTML’s syntax emphasizes readability: elements can be nested using simple XML‑style tags, and optional data‑attributes are available for additional context, for example data‑lang="fi" to denote Finnish language content. The language is fully supported by major browsers when served as standard HTML, allowing developers to test and preview pages without any special tooling.

The community around EsimerkkiHTML is maintained through an open‑source GitHub repository, where contributors can add new component templates, accessibility extensions, and localization modules. The project’s documentation includes a step‑by‑step tutorial, a cheatsheet for common patterns, and a migration guide for converting legacy HTML sites.

Despite its niche focus, EsimerkkiHTML serves as a valuable educational resource for instructors teaching web development in Finnish schools, and it continues to evolve through community feedback and periodic releases.