Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Using System Fonts

The font property provides a number of keywords that allow authors to apply font styles from the operating system into their web documents. This may be a useful tool for making a web application blend in with the surrounding desktop environment. The values are:

caption

The font used for captioned controls (e.g., buttons, drop-down menus, etc.)

icon

The font used to label icons

menu

The font used in menus (e.g., drop-down menus and menu lists)

message-box

The font used in dialog boxes

small-caption

The font used for labeling small controls

status-bar

The font used in window status bars

Choosing one of these keywords applies all aspects of that font (family, size, weight) at once, although they may be overridden with specific font properties. If a particular font is not found, the user agent should approximate the font or substitute a default font. System font values are well-supported by current standards-compliant browsers.