HTML5 Finally Gets a Logo

HTML5 has been the center of a lot of attention in the past couple of years or so and, as the standard specs are closer to being finalized, excitement among developers and power users alike is on the rise. Everyone's talking about HTML5 and that's beginning to be bad thing since everyone has their own interpretation of what HTML5 is, how to promote it and what it's good at.

W3C, the standards body behind the proposed HTML5 has finally decide to bring all of the discussions and points of view together into a cohesive dialog since a standard is supposed to unify not divide. Hence the new (not yet fully) official HTML5 logo and branding.

"The logo is a general-purpose visual identity for a broad set of open web technologies, including HTML5, CSS, SVG, WOFF, and others. In addition to the HTML5 logo there are icons for eight high level technology classes enabled by the HTML5 family of technologies," W3C explains.

The interesting thing about this is that the HTML5 logo doesn't actually represent the HTML5 standard exclusively but a broader set of web technologies often associated with HTML5.

There has been some confusion over this as every new web technology was labeled as HTML5 even though it wasn't strictly part of the standard or even be HTML, things like CSS3 and SVG being the worst offenders.

But most people wouldn't really care about the details of the technologies, they need a common 'brand' to represent all modern developments and, intended or not, HTML5 has become that brand.

"It stands strong and true, resilient and universal as the markup you write. It shines as bright and as bold as the forward-thinking, dedicated web developers you are. It's the standard's standard, a pennant for progress. And it certainly doesn't use tables for layout," W3C describes the logo.

Note though that the logo and branding are not yet official. While they are supported and have been proposed by the W3C, the organisation is waiting to see how the public responds to them. If it gets a warm welcome it will become the 'official' HTML5 logo in Q1 2011.