One-Minute History of Tables in Web Pages

When HTML originated in the 1980s, it was as a simple standardized markup language for use by physicists to share research data and results on the Web in an easy and manageable way. Much of the data was contained in tables, so tables became an important addition to HTML. But as designers, developers, and the public started to see the potential in HTML and the World Wide Web, the content made available quickly moved beyond simple text documents with a few images and some tables to more advanced designs with background graphics, menus, and advanced interactivity. As the demands of the new users expanded, so did the capabilities of the markup language. As a result, what began as a simple way to communicate text content grew into a hugely complicated code set with heavy focus on the visual aspects of presentation rather than on the content.

One of the big elements of this development was the use of tables as a layout tool. If you have ever tried to make content look nice in a word processing application, you know you can use tables to make backgrounds, separate text, and insert other eye candy. This quickly became the standard for web design at the cost of legibility: Nonessential information, such as layout and design code, cluttered the simple HTML markup.