<BASEFONT> | NN all IE all HTML 3.2
<BASEFONT> | HTML End Tag: Forbidden
A basefont element advises the browser of some font information to be used as the basis for text rendering of the current page below the basefont element. You can apply this element in either the head or body portion of the document (although Microsoft recommends in the body only for IE 4 and later), and you can insert basefont elements as often as is needed to set the base font for a portion of the document. Be aware that basefont element settings do not necessarily apply to content in tables. If you want table content to resemble a custom basefont setting, you likely have to set the font styles to table elements separately.

The basefont element overrides the default font settings in the browser's user preferences settings. Like most font-related elements, the basefont element is deprecated in HTML 4 in favor of style sheets, and is removed from the HTML 4 and XHTML strict DTDs.

Example
    <BASEFONT face="Times, serif" size="4">
Element-Specific Attributes

color | face | name | size

Element-Specific Event Handler Attributes
None.

color | NN 6 IE 3 HTML 4
color="colorTripletOrName" | Optional
Sets the font color of all text below the basefont element. Deprecated in HTML 4 in favor of the color CSS attribute.
Example
    <BASEFONT color="Olive">
Value
A hexadecimal triplet or plain-language color name. See Appendix A for acceptable plain-language color names.
Default
Browser default.
Object Model Reference
    [window.]document.getElementsByTagName("basefont")[0].color

face | NN 6 IE 4 HTML 4
face="fontFaceName1[, ... fontFaceNameN]" | Optional
You can assign a hierarchy of font faces to use for the default font of a section headed by a basefont element. The browser looks for the first font face in the comma-delimited list of font face names until it either finds a match in 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. Deprecated in HTML 4 in favor of the font-family CSS attribute.

In IE 3, this attribute was called the name attribute.

Example
    <BASEFONT face="Bookman, Times Roman, serif">
Value
One or more font face names, including the recognized generic faces: serif | sans-serif | cursive | fantasy | monospace.
Default
Browser default.
Object Model Reference
    [window.]document.getElementsByTagName("basefont")[0].face

name | NN n/a IE |3| HTML n/a
name="fontFaceName" | Optional
This was IE 3's version of what is today the face attribute. It accepts a single font face as a value. The name attribute is no longer used.
Value
A single font face name.
Default
Browser default.

size | NN 6 IE all HTML 3.2
size="integerOrRelativeSize" | Optional
Font sizes referenced by the size attribute are on a 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.

Example
    <BASEFONT size="4">
    <BASEFONT size="+3">
Value
Either an integer or relative value, consisting of a + or - symbol and an integer value.
Default
3
Object Model Reference
    [window.]document.getElementsByTagName("basefont")[0].size