A FONT element is a container whose contents are rendered with the font characteristics defined by the element's attributes. This element is deprecated in HTML 4.0 in favor of font attributes available in style sheets that are applied directly to other elements or the artificial SPAN container for inline font changes. This element will be supported for a long time to come to allow backward compatibility with web pages designed for older browsers, however.

The FONT element has evolved over its lifetime, adding new attributes along the way to work in the more mature browsers. Navigator includes some proprietary attributes for Version 4 that are better served by style sheets for cross-browser compatibility.

Sets the font color of all text contained by the FONT element. This attribute is deprecated in HTML 4.0 in favor of style sheets.

You can assign a hierarchy of font faces to use for a segment of text contained by a FONT element. The browser looks for the first font face in the comma-delimited list of font face names until it either finds a match on the client system or runs out of choices, at which point the browser default font face is used. Font face names must match the system font face names exactly. If you use this attribute (instead of the preferred style sheet attribute), you can always suggest a generic font face (serif, sans-serif) as the final choice.

A unique identifier that distinguishes this element from all the rest in the document. Can be used to associate a single element with a style rule naming this attribute value as an ID selector. An element can have an ID assigned for uniqueness as well as a class for inclusion within a group. A style sheet rule applied to a FONT element overrides any directly assigned attribute values. Therefore, you can define a set of font characteristics for non-CSS-capable browsers and a modified version for CSS-capable browsers in the same tag. See .

The POINT-SIZE attribute is Navigator 4's non-CSS equivalent of setting the font size by specific point size (rather than by relative font size directed by the SIZE attribute). If you assign a value to the POINT-SIZE attribute and set the font-size style attribute, the style attribute takes precedence. If you are aiming for cross-browser deployment, I suggest using style sheets exclusively for precise point sizes.

Font sizes referenced by the SIZE attribute are the relative size scale that is not tied to any one point size across operating system platforms. The default browser font size is 3. The range of acceptable values for the SIZE attribute are integers from 1 to 7 inclusive. The exact point size varies with the operating system and browser design.

Users can often adjust the default font size in preferences settings. The SIZE attribute overrides that setting. Moreover, SIZE values can be relative to whatever font size is set in the preferences. By preceding an attribute value with a + or - sign, the browser's default size can be adjusted upward or downward, but always within the range of 1 through 7.

This attribute lets you set one or more style sheet rule property assignments for the current element. A style sheet rule applied to a FONT element overrides any directly assigned attribute values. Therefore, you can define a set of font characteristics for non-CSS-capable browsers and a modified version for CSS-capable browsers in the same tag.

The WEIGHT attribute is Navigator 4's non-CSS equivalent of setting the font weight with a regular attribute rather than by style sheet rule. The attribute does not appear to work, but setting the font-weight style attribute does the job.