Webdesign Essentials

# Fonts

  • Every piece of text within the elements (body, h1, p, li, ...) of your website has a font
  • If you want to change something about the font or text you can select a specific element (using the correct selector) and use the following properties:
property example description
font-family font-family: Verdana; font in Verdana
font-size font-size: 25px; size of the font is 25px
font-style font-style: italic; italic font
font-variant font-variant: small-caps; Font in Small Caps
text-transform text-transform: capitalize; first character of every word is uppercase
text-transform: uppercase; font in UPPER case
text-transform: lowercase; font in LOWER case
font-weight font-weight: bold; font in bold
text-decoration text-decoration: underline; font is underlined
text-decoration: none; this link is not underlined
line-height line-height: 24px; height of a text line, fixed value of 24px
line-height: 1.5; line-height = font-size * 1.5
text-align text-align: center;
centers the text
text-align: right;
aligns the text to the right
text-shadow text-shadow: 2px 2px 8px #ff0000; adds shadow to the text

# font-family

  • The font-family property specifies the font of an element
  • The font-family property can hold several font names as "fallback" system. If the browser does not support the first font, it tries the next font.

 


body {
    font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;
}
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EMMET instruction result
ff:v + TAB font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
ff:ss + TAB font-family: sans-serif;
ff:t + TAB font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville, Georgia, serif;

REMARKS

  • To work with fonts in a valid way (without warnings) you need to specify a generic fallback font as the last alternative for the font-family property
    Validity report for fonts
    • There are 5 generic fallback fonts which each browsers knows and supports: serif, sans-serif, cursive, fantasy and monospace
      • font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; -> sans-serif is the generic fallback font
  • Fonts without serifs ("sans serif") increase both the readability and reading speed of long passages of text
  • Fonts with serifs are often used for more elegant/luxury titles

shot the sherif

  • CSS Font Stack is a good place to read about how to assemble a good collection of fonts (= font stacks)
  • Stay away from Comic Sans MS if you don't want to be the subject of laughter!

# font-size

  • The font-size property sets the size of a font

 



 


h1 {
    font-size: 50px;
}

h2 {
    font-size: 2rem;
}
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UNITS OF MEASUREMENT

  • There are numerous units of measurement we can use in CSS. In this course we will only use px (pixels) and rem (relative to font-size of root element):
    • px: commonly used by web developers and designers (Photoshop)
      • absolute length: fixed
    • rem
      • relative length: length is relative to font-size of the root element (which is the html element, not the body element)
      • Example: the font-size of the h2 element is 2rem, which translates to 2 x the browser's root element size (usually 16px)
EMMET instruction result
fz + TAB font-size: ;
fz50 + TAB font-size: 50px;

# font-style

  • The font-style property specifies the style of a font
    • Possible values: italic, normal (= default)

 


p {
    font-style: italic;
}
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EMMET instruction result
fs:i + TAB font-style: italic;

# font-variant

  • The font-variant property specifies whether a text should be displayed in small-caps
    • Possible values: small-caps, normal (= default)

 


p {
    font-variant: small-caps;
}
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EMMET instruction result
fv:sc + TAB font-variant: small-caps;

# text-transform

  • The text-transform property controls the capitalization of text
    • Possible values: uppercase, lowercase, capitalize, none (= default)

 



 



 


.uppercase {
    text-transform: uppercase;
}

.lowercase {
    text-transform: lowercase;
}

.capitalize {
    text-transform: capitalize; /* first character of every word in uppercase */
}
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EMMET instruction result
tt:u + TAB text-transform: uppercase;
tt:l + TAB text-transform: lowercase;
tt:c + TAB text-transform: capitalize;

# font-weight

  • The font-weight property sets the thickness of text
    • Possible values: bold, normal (= default)

 


p {
    font-weight: bold;
}
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EMMET instruction result
fw:b + TAB font-weight: bold;

# text-decoration

  • The text-decoration property whether decoration should be added to the text or not

 



 


.underline {
    text-decoration: underline;
}

a {
    text-decoration: none;
}
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REMARKS

  • Be careful with removing the (default) underlining of link tags!
  • According to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): If a link is only indicated via color, a contrast ratio of 3:1 between the link color and the surrounding text must be used. This should be accompanied by additional visual cues when hovering over and focusing on the link.
  • Reading tips:
EMMET instruction result
td:u + TAB text-decoration: underline;
td:n + TAB text-decoration: none;

# line-height

  • Choosing a correct line height improves the readability of a webpage
  • The line-height property specifies the height of a line

TIP

  • To obtain a nice layout, a suitable font is not enough. Also the line-height has to be well-chosen!
  • Open these examples of good and bad line-heights
    • In each of the rectangles you see the same font in combination with a different line-height
    • Delete the rectangles (by clicking on them) that you find the least attractive to read, until you have 1 rectangle left
    • After that, you will see what most surfers consider to be a good line-height and how this ratio came about

 



 


p {
    line-height: 24px;
}

article p {
    line-height: 1.5;
}
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EMMET instruction result
lh + TAB line-height:
lh24px + TAB line-height: 24px;

# text-align

  • The text-align property specifies the horizontal alignment of text in an element
    • Possible values: left (= default), center, right, justify

 



 



 


div.center {
  text-align: center; /* centers the text */
}

div.right {
  text-align: right; /* aligns the text to the right */
}

div.justify {
  text-align: justify; /* stretches the spacing so that each text line has an equal width */
}
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EMMET instruction result
ta + TAB text-align: left;
ta:c + TAB text-align: center;
ta:r + TAB text-align: right;
ta:j + TAB text-align: justify;

# text-shadow

  • The text-shadow property adds shadow to text
    • Syntax: text-shadow: hoff voff blur color;
value required/optional description
hoff required position of the horizontal shadow; negative values are allowed
voff required position of the vertical shadow; negative values are allowed
blur optional blur radius; default value is 0px
color optional color of the shadow; see Colors

 


h1 {
  text-shadow: 2px 2px 5px #ff0000;
}
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EMMET instruction result
tsh + TAB text-shadow: hoff voff blur #000;
tsh+ + TAB text-shadow: 0 0 0 #000;
tsh:r + TAB text-shadow: h v blur rgb(0, 0, 0);
tsh:ra + TAB text-shadow: h v blur rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);

DESIGN TIP

  • Using the RGBA color system (and a partially transparent color) for the shadow usually gives a better/prettier result, especially on colored and non-smooth backgrounds
  • It is very important to not overdo text shadows if you want your website to look modern

# All-in-one example

    
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body {
    font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;
    font-size: 16px;
    /*line-height: 24px;*/
    line-height: 1.5;
}

h1 {
    font-size: 50px;
    text-transform: uppercase;
}

h2 {
    font-style: italic;
    text-align: center;
}

h3 {
    font-variant: small-caps; 
    text-shadow: 0px 0px 4px rgba(250, 100, 50, .47);
}

a {
    font-weight: bold;
    text-decoration: none;
}

p {
    text-align: justify;
}
Last Updated: 10/3/2025, 11:53:47 AM