HTML, XHTML & CSS

When assigning values to the font-family
property, you can use a list of comma-separated
font names. These names must match
fonts available to a user’s Web browser. If a
font name includes spaces — such as Times
New Roman — enclose it in quotation marks.
h1 {font-family: Verdana, “Times New
Roman”, serif;}
Chapter 9: Introducing Cascading Style Sheets
However, such a large collection of style rules can be hard to manage. CSS
allows you to combine several declarations in a single style rule that affects
multiple display characteristics for a single selector, like this:
h1 {color: teal;
font-family: Arial;
font-size: 36px;}
All the declarations for the h1 selector are within the same set of brackets
({}) and are separated by semicolons (;). You can put as many declarations
as you want in a style rule; just end each declaration with a semicolon.
The semicolon at the end of the last declaration is optional. Some people
include it to be consistent and end every declaration with a semicolon, but
it’s not necessary. We use it both ways throughout this book, but when you
stop to think about it, it’s a good idea to be consistent and always use a semicolon
for each and every declaration.
From a purely technical standpoint, white space is irrelevant in style sheets
(just as it is in HTML), but you should use a consistent spacing scheme to
make it easy to read and edit your style sheets. One exception to this white
space rule occurs when you declare multiple font names in the font-family
declaration. See the “Font family” sidebar for more information.
You can make the same set of declarations apply to a collection of selectors,
too: You just separate the selectors with commas. The following style rule
applies the declarations for text color, font family, and font size to the h1, h2,
and h3 selectors:
h1, h2, h3 {color: teal;
font-family: Arial;
font-size: 300%;}
Font family
In the preceding rule, the browser knows to use
Verdana first; if that’s not available, it looks for
Times New Roman, and then uses a generic
serif font as its last option. Chapter 11 covers
fonts in CSS.
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