Sets a prioritized list of font families to be used to render the content. One or more font family names may be included in a comma-delimited list of attribute values. If a font family name consists of multiple words, the family name must be inside quotes (and Navigator 4 may behave best if each family name is quoted).

A font family may consist of multiple font definitions. For example, a Helvetica font family may also include a bold version and an italic version--genuinely distinct fonts rather than the approximated versions of bold and italic. When you specify a font family by name, the browser looks into the client's system to see if there is a font available by that name. If not, the browser looks to the next font family name in the list. Therefore, it is wise to include font family names in a sequence that goes from the most esoteric to the most generic. The final font family name should be the generic family (serif, sans-serif, cursive, fantasy, or monospace) that most closely resembles the desired font. Many fonts that are widely installed on one operating system may not be as popular on another operating system.

Browsers following the CSS2 specification should also be smart enough to recognize Unicode character codes and try to match them with named font families that cater to particular languages. Ideally, this will allow a browser to mix fonts from different languages and writing systems in the same element, provided each font-family is listed in the attribute value.