The tag: its uses and abuses. ----==========---------------------- It may be worth noting that W3C HTML4.0 classifies this as ”deprecated•! However, it is widely used (and misused), so is worth describing. It is a ”phrase markup• tag, so must have a matching end tag. It has one, two or three of the following attributes: COLOR= to set a text colour; SIZE= to set a text size, in absolute or relative terms; FACE= to set a typeface by name. --------------------- Colour is specified using the hexadecimal RGB notation, so that: would set black text, would set full-red text, would set light blue text, etc. ------------------ Absolute size is specified as a number from 1 (smallest) to 7 (largest). (This is the opposite order to Headings, where H1 is the largest). These numbers do not relate to absolute point-size; but you may assume that "3" corresponds to normal body text, so there are four sizes larger and two sizes smaller available. Sizes may also be specified with a preceding "+" or "-" sign, to set a size relative to the current body text size: would set size 5 (two sizes larger than size 3), would set two sizes larger than ”normal•, would set one size smaller than ”normal•, etc. It is obviously pointless to try for sizes greater than "+4" or less than "-2". Note that font size should NOT be attempted within Headings. It is quite possible to avoid tags altogether: If you wanted a size increase for the purposes of a heading (main heading, chapter heading, sub-heading, paragraph heading, etc), it would be much better to use one of the Heading tags

to

. If you just wanted to pick out a key-word (or phrase) in a larger size, or a parenthetic explanatory phrase in a smaller size, you could use the tags or respectively. -------------------- This is the most widely abused tag of the three, as it goes contrary to all the basic principles of HTML by trying to impose typesetting attributes to a system never intended to be a document layout method. The value part of the attribute contains a comma-separated list of typeface names (the list being enclosed in quotes). Since I don't know what fonts you‘ve got on your computer, and you don‘t know what fonts I‘ve got on mine, this is a complete and utter waste of time! Quite apart from which (and this applies to font-size too): a user may well have set up their browser to use as default a typeface which THEY find the most legible and comfortable to read on-screen; if you change that to some fancy and less legible font, you will actually (in their eyes) have made your site far LESS attractive! Multiple attributes and nesting ------------------------------- Note that nowhere in the W3C specs does it explicitly permit tags to be nested. Most browsers can implement nested font tags, but only out of necessity because too many people misuse that possibility. If you want to highlight a phrase by changing both its colour and size, you should set both effects in the same one tag, thus: Here's a new version of it where the single end tag ”closes• both effects. If you try to use lots of nested tags, each with just one attribute (but different attributes in different tags), you are almost certain to confuse yourself as to which of the many tags corresponds to which of the many opening tags. John Alldred 13 February 1999 john@protovale.co.uk http://www.protovale/john/