In HTML and XHTML, a font family is a group of similar fonts. There are 5 predefined generic families:
| Serif: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Sans-serif: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Cursive: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Fantasy: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Monospace: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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(Under Windows API, they are identified as Roman, Swiss, Script, Decorative and Modern, respectively).
There may be many other font families; however, you cannot expect them to be universally supported. Just see what your browser can make out of it:
| Times: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
|
| Roman: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Garamond: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Palatino: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Antiqua: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Minion: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Helvetica: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Swiss: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Impact: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Script: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Decorative: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Blackletter: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Fraktur: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Modern: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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| Courier: | abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
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The actual looks will depend on you browser and the fonts installed on your system. Internet Explorer, for instance, always displays Serif and Times as Times New Roman, and Sans-serif and Helvetica as Arial.
Typically font family instructions are placed in Cascading Style Sheets.
