TEI Guidelines

The TEI Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange define and document a markup language for representing the structural, renditional, and conceptual features of texts. They focus (though not exclusively) on the encoding of documents in the humanities and social sciences, and in particular on the representation of primary source materials for research and analysis. These guidelines are expressed as a modular, extensible XML schema, accompanied by detailed documentation, and are published under an open-source license. The Guidelines are maintained and developed by the TEI Consortium, through its Council and editors, with the support and participation of the TEI community.

Below are some of the most important resources and information needed to use and learn about the TEI Guidelines:
  • P5 Guidelines

    The most recent version of the TEI guidelines is known as P5, and was released in November 2007.

  • P4 Guidelines

    P4 is an older version of the TEI Guidelines, published in 2002.

  • Customization of the Guidelines

    The TEI Guidelines are designed to be customized, and specific projects and disciplinary groups often create customized versions reflecting particular needs and practices. We collect here well-documented TEI customizations, such as the popular TEI Lite, that may be of use as models or for projects wishing to follow their practice. We also provide information on creating TEI customizations.

  • Internationalization

    The TEI Guidelines are currently being translated into languages other than English; we provide here details of this process and information on how to get internationalized versions of the Guidelines.

  • The TEI SourceForge Site

    The TEI maintains a SourceForge site where it manages the development and distribution of current versions of the TEI Guidelines. The source files for the latest version of the Guidelines and related materials (stylesheets, Roma, I18N files) can be downloaded at the SourceForge site.

  • TEI Archive

    The TEI Archive contains older versions of the Guidelines, and some history of their development; it also contains archived materials from earlier versions of the TEI web site.

  • Getting Involved

    The TEI welcomes participation in the development of the Guidelines; we detail here the various ways in which the TEI community (members and non-members) can contribute.

  • Licensing and Citation

    Learn about the licensing terms for the TEI Guidelines, and how to cite them.

  • Teach Yourself TEI

    The TEI maintains a list of resources and materials that can help you get started learning the TEI Guidelines, including links to workshops, project documentation, and online tutorials.