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<meta charset=”utf-8″> vs <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type”>

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<meta charset=”utf-8″> is an HTML tag that is used to indicate the web page’s character encoding. In order to see the correct content, the tag’s function is used which let the browser know what character encoding was used in the HTML document. The tag is located in the document’s head. The utf-8 is an encoding character set that contains almost all the characters that are used in writing systems worldwide. Text, symbols, and special characters can be correctly decoded and displayed with the help of the browser regardless of the language. The <meta charset=”utf-8″> provides the character encoding used for the writing system. This guarantees that the material can be read and understood by users worldwide and it is shown consistently across various devices and platforms.

Example:

HTML




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
</head>
  
<body>
    <h2 style="color:green">
        Welcome To GFG
    </h2>
    <p
        This is the example of 
        meta charset="utf-8".
    </p>
</body>
  
</html>


Output:           

 

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type”> is an older technique that is used for indicating the character encoding of a web page.“http-equiv” element specifies the character encoding and content type element. It is similar to <meta charset=”utf-8″>, with the same location i.e. HTML document’s head, and the same functionality. Normally, we do not use <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type”> because of being trickier and less obvious than <meta charset=”utf-8″>.

Example:

HTML




<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  
<head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" 
        content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
  
<body>
    <h2 style="color:green;">
        Welcome To GFG
    </h2>
      
    <p>
        This is the example of 
        "meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
    </p>
</body>
  
</html>


Output:          

 

Difference between <meta charset=”utf-8″> and  <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type”>: Some of the differences between <meta charset=”utf-8″> and <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type”> are listed below.

                         <meta charset=”utf-8″>           <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type”>
It is used to specify the character encoding used in the HTML document. It is used to specify the HTTP header content type.
It is used to replace the older, non-standard <meta charset=” “> tag. It is considered a legacy method of specifying character encoding, but still, it is used widely.
UTF-8 is the most commonly used character encoding.  UTF-8 is the most commonly used but can be used to specify different character encodings.
It is considered the best practice for specifying character encoding in HTML5 documents. It is supported in older versions of HTML, but not recommended in HTML5.
The speed and performance of a website are improved by reducing the size of the HTML file. Does not affect the speed and performance of a website.
The value “utf-8” is required to be placed in lowercase which means it is case-sensitive. The “Content-Type” is not case-sensitive.
It is a simpler and more readable method of specifying the character encode. It is lengthy and a complex method,
<meta charset=”utf-8″> is supported by all modern browsers, while some older browsers may not support it.  <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type”> is supported by all modern browsers, as well as some older browsers.
<meta charset=”utf-8″> requires less processing by the browser as it is a more lightweight and efficient method of specifying the character encoding. <meta http-equiv=”Content-Type”> may require more processing, as the browser needs to interpret the “http-equiv” attribute.


Last Updated : 10 Mar, 2023
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