[thelist] interesting CSS syntax

Robin Hastings robin at rhastings.net
Wed Jun 13 16:11:18 CDT 2001


>I noticed that this site (http://www.interwoven.com/) has a very interesting
>syntax on their CSS doc. My browser defaults to Lucida Sans Unicode, where
>is it coming from? What does YOUR browser display?
>
>.more
>    {
>    font-size: 8pt;
>    font-family: 'X', sans-serif, arial, helvetica, verdana 'X';
>    }
>
>
>What does the 'X' do?
>
>¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
>michael mcglynn
>interface designer
>¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

It looks like a fake font name to compensate for some browser quirks. A selection from the
"note" section of their CSS file reads:

"NOTES:
      for font-family, several alternative fonts are specified,
      followed finally by a supported generic family name
      ('serif', 'sans-serif', 'cursive', 'fantasy').

      Place the font-family declaration at the end of the list of
      declarations for a selector to account for an MSIE3 font
      declaration freak out

      For correct rendering across all three browsers include a
      fictitious font name enclosed in single quotes as your
      first font choice and a fictitious font name as your last
      choice. "

Since the X is fake, it would go to the next available font - the default sans-serif for
that machine, in your case it would be Lucida!

HTH,

Robin Hastings
Public Computer Center Coordinator
hastingsr at mrrl.org
(573) 634-6064 x242








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