Default HTML

Default HTML is anti-design made deliberate: it borrows the user-agent stylesheet of mid-1990s browsers and the plain-document culture of the early web, academic homepages and RFCs. A Times-like serif for everything, black on white, links in #0000EE with underlines and #551A8B once visited, grey system buttons, and tables with visible borders. Structure is exposed rather than decorated: horizontal rules divide sections, headings are bold and only a little larger than body text, and lists look like lists. The feeling is honesty and speed: nothing here is trying to sell you, so you believe it. Everything is styled, but nothing looks styled.

Principles

• If the browser has a default for it, use the default.
• Links are blue, underlined and visited links are purple. Always.
• Separate sections with <hr>, not with background colours.
• Hierarchy comes from bold and size steps, not from colour or spacing tricks.
• Keep every page under 50 KB; speed is part of the look.

Motion

Nothing moves. The only state changes are the ones the browser already has: links turn red while pressed and purple once visited, buttons sink into an inset bevel when clicked.

Do & don't