font-size Attribute | fontSize Property

Sets or retrieves a value that indicates the font size used for text in the object.

What's New for Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6

When you use the !DOCTYPE declaration to specify standards-compliant mode, the default value for this property is small, not medium.

Syntax

HTML { font-size : sSize }
Scripting object.style.fontSize [ = sSize ]

Possible Values

sSize Variant that specifies or receives one of the following values.
absolute-size Set of keywords that indicate predefined font sizes. Named font sizes scale according to the user's font setting preferences. Possible values include the following: xx-small, x-small, small, medium, large, x-large, xx-large.
relative-size Set of keywords that are interpreted as relative to the font size of the parent object. Possible values include the following: larger, smaller.
length Floating-point number, followed by an absolute units designator (cm, mm, in, pt, pc, or px) or a relative units designator (em or ex). For more information about the supported length units, see the CSS Length Units Reference.
percentage Integer, followed by a percent (%). The value is a percentage of the parent object's font size. In Internet Explorer 3.0, the value is calculated as a percentage of the default font size.
The property is read/write for all objects except the following, for which it is read-only: currentStyle. The property has a default value of medium. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) attribute is inherited.
Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

As of Internet Explorer 6, when you use the !DOCTYPE declaration to specify standards-compliant mode, the default value for this property is small, not medium.
Negative values are not allowed. Font sizes using the proportional "em" measure are based on the font size of the parent object.
Possible length values specified in a relative measurement, using the height of the element's font (em) or the height of the letter "x" (ex), are supported in Internet Explorer 4.0 and later.

Examples

The following examples use the font-size attribute and the fontSize property to change font characteristics.
This example sets the font size on several paragraphs using different size values.
<STYLE>
BODY{font-size: 10pt }
.P1 {font-size: 14pt }
.P2 {font-size: 75% }
.P3 {font-size: xx-large }
.P4 {font-size: larger }
</STYLE>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.
This example uses inline scripting to set the font size to 14pt when an onmouseover event occurs.
<DIV STYLE="font-size:12pt" onmouseover="this.style.fontSize='14pt'">
:
</DIV>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

Standards Information

This property is defined in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Level 1 (CSS1) .

Applies To

A, ADDRESS, APPLET, B, BIG, BLOCKQUOTE, BODY, BUTTON, CAPTION, CENTER, CITE, CODE, COL, COLGROUP, currentStyle, CUSTOM, DD, defaults, DFN, DIR, DIV, DL, DT, EM, FIELDSET, FORM, hn, HTML, I, INPUT type=button, INPUT type=file, INPUT type=image, INPUT type=password, INPUT type=reset, INPUT type=submit, INPUT type=text, ISINDEX, KBD, LABEL, LEGEND, LI, LISTING, MARQUEE, MENU, OL, P, PLAINTEXT, PRE, runtimeStyle, S, SAMP, SELECT, SMALL, SPAN, STRIKE, STRONG, style, SUB, SUP, TABLE, TBODY, TD, TEXTAREA, TFOOT, TH, THEAD, TR, TT, U, UL, VAR, XMP