Posted by Alan J. Flavell on 10/02/05 18:56

On Sun, 2 Oct 2005, Ben Amada wrote:

> I just discovered that the FONT tag has been deprecated for some
> time now. What is the recommended replacement for it?

That very much depends on what you're trying to use it for.

If you're trying to propose cosmetic changes, then it should be
obvious that CSS is the place to do that. Others have already gone
into detail on that; but really, if that's not in one's basic
knowledge nowadays, ask for your money back from whoever introduced
you to the web.

If you were trying font face="symbol" (or webdings, or anything else
that replaces real characters by fake symbols), then "stop doing
that". It doesn't work on specification-conforming browsers anyway:
it gives a visual impression of working on MesSIE, and on some other
browsers in quirky mode, but it's fundamentally unsound. Use the
correct Unicode characters or references (for characters which are
generally supported - MS's WGL4 is a useful guideline) or, at least
for a general audience, find some other way to convey the message.
(Those with specialist requirements might be expected to set up their
browsers and fonts more carefully, to support a wider range of
characters).

Windows users in the USA, in particular (who, it seems from general
reports, get a fairly castrated set of fonts from MS by default)
should be advised to turn on any multinational options that their
respective OS installer might have available for them.

good luck.

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