5.8 Summary

user agent that didn't let authors (or even readers) assign fonts would quickly find itself out of favor.

in this area. The frustrating part for authors is usually not the way in which font sizing is supported, but instead in how a unit they want to use (points) can yield very different results in different media, or even different operating systems and user agents. The dangers of using points are many, and using length units for web design is generally not a good idea. Percentages, em units, and ex units are usually best for changing font sizes, since these scale very well in all common display environments.

The other frustration is likely to be the continued lack of a mechanism to specify fonts for downloading and use in a document. This means that authors are still dependent on the fonts a user has available, and that they cannot predict what appearance that text will take.

Speaking of styling text, there are ways to do so that don't involve fonts, which the next chapter will address.