1---
2layout: default
3permalink: /
4title: Introduction
5---
6
7Introduction
8============
9
10[![Author](http://img.shields.io/badge/author-@reinink-blue.svg?style=flat-square)](https://twitter.com/reinink)
11[![Source Code](http://img.shields.io/badge/source-league/plates-blue.svg?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/thephpleague/plates)
12[![Latest Version](https://img.shields.io/github/release/thephpleague/plates.svg?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/thephpleague/plates/releases)
13[![Software License](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-brightgreen.svg?style=flat-square)](https://github.com/thephpleague/plates/blob/master/LICENSE)<br />
14[![Build Status](https://img.shields.io/travis/thephpleague/plates/master.svg?style=flat-square)](https://travis-ci.org/thephpleague/plates)
15[![Coverage Status](https://img.shields.io/scrutinizer/coverage/g/thephpleague/plates.svg?style=flat-square)](https://scrutinizer-ci.com/g/thephpleague/plates/code-structure)
16[![Quality Score](https://img.shields.io/scrutinizer/g/thephpleague/plates.svg?style=flat-square)](https://scrutinizer-ci.com/g/thephpleague/plates)
17[![Total Downloads](https://img.shields.io/packagist/dt/league/plates.svg?style=flat-square)](https://packagist.org/packages/league/plates)
18
19## About
20
21Plates is a native PHP template system that's fast, easy to use and easy to extend. It's inspired by the excellent [Twig](http://twig.sensiolabs.org/) template engine and strives to bring modern template language functionality to native PHP templates. Plates is designed for developers who prefer to use native PHP templates over compiled template languages, such as Twig or Smarty.
22
23## Highlights
24
25- Native PHP templates, no new [syntax](/templates/syntax/) to learn
26- Plates is a template system, not a template language
27- Plates encourages the use of existing PHP functions
28- Increase code reuse with template [layouts](/templates/layouts/) and [inheritance](/templates/inheritance/)
29- Template [folders](/engine/folders/) for grouping templates into namespaces
30- [Data](/templates/data/#preassigned-and-shared-data) sharing across templates
31- Preassign [data](/templates/data/#preassigned-and-shared-data) to specific templates
32- Built-in [escaping](/templates/escaping/) helpers
33- Easy to extend using [functions](/engine/functions/) and [extensions](/engine/extensions/)
34- Framework-agnostic, will work with any project
35- Decoupled design makes templates easy to test
36- Composer ready and PSR-2 compliant
37
38## Questions?
39
40Plates was created by [Jonathan Reinink](https://twitter.com/reinink). Submit issues to [Github](https://github.com/thephpleague/plates/issues).
41