Good typography on the Internet: is it even possible?

HTML Text - CSS tags

In order to understand CSS formatting instructions users must have a ‘version 4’ Web browser or better. This used to be a real cause for concern, but now virtually all Web surfers use a fairly modern CSS-aware Web browser. (The usage statistics for many Websites show at most just a handful of visits from version 3 browsers.)

CSS formatting covers a range of useful controls, from specific type sizes and separate word and letter spacing (which is actually a step beyond QuarkXPress, although this isn’t handled by recent versions of Navigator) to leading and inter-paragraph spacing. It is more complex to write, but then the majority of today’s Websites are put together with tools such as Dreamweaver, Freeway or GoLive, tools which help produce complex code automatically. However even if you never write a line of CSS code yourself it is well worth understanding what it can and can’t do, so you’ll understand the limitations when considering future productions.
For a blow-by-blow of the important parts of FONT and CSS controls see .

Next: Web-safe Fonts...