In last post i have ended with Generic font family – is continued. Style sheet designers are encouraged to offer a generic font family as a last alternative. Generic font family names are keywords and must NOT be quoted.

The generic font families are classified into five types – as follows:

1. serif

2. sans-serif

3. cursive

4. fantasy

5. monospace

Generic font families are a fallback mechanism, a means of preserving some of the style sheet author’s intent in the worst case when none of the specified fonts can be selected. For optimum typographic control, particular named fonts should be used in style sheets.

All five generic font families are defined to exist in all CSS implementations (they need not necessarily map to five distinct actual fonts). User agents should provide reasonable default choices for the generic font families, which express the characteristics of each family as well as possible within the limits allowed by the underlying technology.

User agents are encouraged to allow users to select alternative choices for the generic fonts.

1. serif

Glyphs of serif fonts, as the term is used in CSS, have finishing strokes, flared or tapering ends, or have actual serifed endings (including slab serifs). Serif fonts are typically proportionately-spaced. They often display a greater variation between thick and thin strokes than fonts from the ‘sans-serif’ generic font family. CSS uses the term ‘serif’ to apply to a font for any script, although other names may be more familiar for particular scripts, such as Mincho (Japanese), Sung or Song (Chinese), Totum or Kodig (Korean). Any font that is so described may be used to represent the generic ‘serif’ family.

Examples of fonts that fit this description include:

Latin fonts	Times New Roman, Bodoni, Garamond, Minion Web, ITC Stone Serif, MS Georgia, Bitstream Cyberbit
Greek fonts	Bitstream Cyberbit
Cyrillic fonts	Adobe Minion Cyrillic, Excelsior Cyrillic Upright, Monotype Albion 70, Bitstream Cyberbit, ER Bukinist
Hebrew fonts	New Peninim, Raanana, Bitstream Cyberbit
Japanese fonts	Ryumin Light-KL, Kyokasho ICA, Futo Min A101
Arabic fonts	Bitstream Cyberbit
Cherokee fonts	Lo Cicero Cherokee

2. sans-serif

Glyphs in sans-serif fonts, as the term is used in CSS, have stroke endings that are plain — without any flaring, cross stroke, or other ornamentation. Sans-serif fonts are typically proportionately-spaced. They often have little variation between thick and thin strokes, compared to fonts from the ‘serif’ family. CSS uses the term ‘sans-serif’ to apply to a font for any script, although other names may be more familiar for particular scripts, such as Gothic (Japanese), Kai (Chinese), or Pathang (Korean). Any font that is so described may be used to represent the generic ‘sans-serif’ family.

Examples of fonts that fit this description include:

Latin fonts	MS Trebuchet, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, MS Arial, MS Verdana, Univers, Futura, ITC Stone Sans, Gill Sans, Akzidenz Grotesk, Helvetica
Greek fonts	Attika, Typiko New Era, MS Tahoma, Monotype Gill Sans 571, Helvetica Greek
Cyrillic fonts	Helvetica Cyrillic, ER Univers, Lucida Sans Unicode, Bastion
Hebrew fonts	Arial Hebrew, MS Tahoma
Japanese fonts	Shin Go, Heisei Kaku Gothic W5
Arabic fonts	MS Tahoma

3. cursive

Glyphs in cursive fonts, as the term is used in CSS, generally have either joining strokes or other cursive characteristics beyond those of italic typefaces. The glyphs are partially or completely connected, and the result looks more like handwritten pen or brush writing than printed letterwork. Fonts for some scripts, such as Arabic, are almost always cursive. CSS uses the term ‘cursive’ to apply to a font for any script, although other names such as Chancery, Brush, Swing and Script are also used in font names.

Examples of fonts that fit this description include:

Latin fonts	Caflisch Script, Adobe Poetica, Sanvito, Ex Ponto, Snell Roundhand, Zapf-Chancery
Cyrillic fonts	ER Architekt
Hebrew fonts	Corsiva
Arabic fonts	DecoType Naskh, Monotype Urdu 507

4. fantasy

Fantasy fonts, as used in CSS, are primarily decorative while still containing representations of characters (as opposed to Pi or Picture fonts, which do not represent characters). Examples include:

Latin fonts

Alpha Geometrique, Critter, Cottonwood, FB Reactor, Studz

5. monospace

The sole criterion of a monospace font is that all glyphs have the same fixed width. (This can make some scripts, such as Arabic, look most peculiar.) The effect is similar to a manual typewriter, and is often used to set samples of computer code.

Examples of fonts which fit this description include:

Latin fonts	Courier, MS Courier New, Prestige, Everson Mono
Greek Fonts	MS Courier New, Everson Mono
Cyrillic fonts	ER Kurier, Everson Mono
Japanese fonts	Osaka Monospaced
Cherokee fonts	Everson Mono

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