About Font Properties
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Font Properties
font-size-adjust | font-stretch | font | font-style
font-variant | font-weight | font-size | font-family

What Do They Do?
A font is a set of glyphs which map to known characters in one or more languages. The glyphs within a font usually all share common characteristics such as size, style, and design. The Font properties allow control over many different font criteria such as boldness, italics, size, and specific or generic font name.

In CSS1, fonts were identified only by their name. If none of the fonts an author specified were available, the browser had to resort to using default fonts. This is clearly not the best solution when documents are available in an environment as heterogeneous as the web.

CSS2 font selection greatly expands the capabilities of browsers with respect to matching fonts when the intended font is not available. Dozens of "font descriptors" have been introduced which break down a desired font's characteristics. When a desired font is not present, all of these descriptors can be used to make an intelligent "best-choice" for an alternate font match. In the event a best match can not be generated, fonts may even be generated on the fly or downloaded as needed over the web.
Related Sites
Official Reference: CSS Level 1, Section 5.2
5.2.7: 'font'
5.2.3: 'font-style'
5.2.4: 'font-variant'
5.2.5: 'font-weight'
5.2.6: 'font-size'
5.6.2: 'font-family'
Official Reference: CSS Level 2, Section 15.2
15.2.4: 'font-size-adjust'
15.2.3: 'font-stretch'
15.2.5: 'font'
15.2.3: 'font-style'
15.2.3: 'font-variant'
15.2.3: 'font-weight'
15.2.4: 'font-size'
15.2.2: 'font-family'


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