Editing Web standards (section)

==Overview==
Web standards include many interdependent standards and specifications, some of which govern aspects of the [[Internet]], not just the World Wide Web. Even when not web-focused, such standards directly or indirectly affect the development and administration of web sites and [[web service]]s. Considerations include the [[interoperability]], [[accessibility]] and [[usability]] of web pages and web sites.

Web standards consist of the following:
* Recommendations published by the [[World Wide Web Consortium]] (W3C),<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.w3.org/TR/#Recommendations |title=W3C Technical Reports and Publications | publisher=W3C | access-date=2009-01-19}}</ref> such as [[HTML]]/[[XHTML]], [[Cascading Style Sheets]] (CSS), image formats such as [[PNG|Portable Network Graphics]] (PNG) and [[SVG|Scalable Vector Graphics]] (SVG), as well as accessibility technologies like [[WAI-ARIA]]<ref name="allsopp">{{Cite book| publisher = New Riders | isbn = 978-0-321-70271-5| last = Allsopp| first = John| title = Developing with Web Standards| date = 2009-12-09|place=Berkeley|page=11}}</ref>
* Standards and "Living standards" published by the [[Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group]] (WHATWG), such as the [[HTML5|HTML Living Standard]], [[Document Object Model|DOM Standard]], [[Character encoding|Encoding Standard]] and [[URL|URL Standard]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=WHATWG Standards |url=https://spec.whatwg.org/ |access-date=2020-11-22 |website=spec.whatwg.org}}</ref>
* Standards published by [[Ecma International]] (formerly ECMA)<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/index.html | title=Ecma formal publications  | publisher=Ecma | access-date=2009-01-19}},</ref> such as [[JavaScript]] (also known as ''ECMAScript'') and [[JavaScript Object Notation]] (JSON) <ref name="allsopp" />
* Standards published by the [[International Organization for Standardization]] (ISO),<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.iso.org/iso/search.htm?qt=world+wide+web&published=on&active_tab=standards |title=Search for World Wide Web in ISO standards | publisher=ISO | access-date=2009-01-19}}</ref> such as [[JPEG]]<ref name="allsopp" />

More broadly, the following technologies may be referred to as "web standards" as well:

* [[Request for Comments]] (RFC) documents published by the [[Internet Engineering Task Force]] (IETF)<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ietf.org/rfc.html |title=IETF RFC page | publisher=IETF | access-date=2009-01-19}}</ref>
* The [[Unicode]] Standard and various Unicode Technical Reports (UTRs) published by the [[Unicode Consortium]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.unicode.org/reports/index.html | title=Unicode Technical Reports | publisher=Unicode Consortium | access-date=2009-01-19}}</ref>
* Name and number registries maintained by the [[Internet Assigned Numbers Authority]] (IANA)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.iana.org/ | title=IANA home page | publisher=IANA | access-date=2009-01-19}}</ref>

Web standards are evolving specifications of web technologies.<ref>{{cite book | author=Leslie Sikos | title= Web standards - Mastering HTML5, CSS3, and XML | publisher= [[Apress]] | year= 2011 | isbn= 	978-1-4302-4041-9 | url= http://www.masteringhtml5css3.com/}}</ref> Web standards are developed by [[standards organization]]s—groups of interested and often competing parties chartered with the task of standardization—not technologies developed and declared to be a standard by a single individual or company. It is crucial to distinguish those specifications that are under development from the ones that already reached the final development status (in case of [[W3C]] specifications, the highest maturity level).