The HTML element
<basefont>specifies the base font.
This is the font in which text is normally rendered, the actual size may be further modified by the <font> tag with a size attribute with a relative (signed) or absolute value. All text, except headings, that is not explicitly marked up will be rendered in the fashion indicated by the <basefont> tag until the end of the document or until a further <basefont> tag is encountered.
The tag has three attributes. These are the same as the attributes of the <font> tag.
This attribute has a numeric value in the range 1 to 7 that specifies the basic font size from the current point onwards to the end of the document or the next <basefont> tag. In the absence of a font size setting the font size defaults to 3.
This non-HTML 3.2 attribute sets the colour of the text.
This non-HTML 3.2 attribute sets the type face of the text.
Note Once you have used <basefont> to switch text from the user-set browser defaults, there is no way to get back to the user-set defaults since there is no way that the HTML author can know what the user has chosen. If you want to make repeated use of <basefont>, you must first use <basefont> at the very start of the page to establish values that can be reset.
The use of style sheets is a better and more flexible way of achieving the results associated with the use of multiple <basefont< tags.
ARA, MOS3 and OP2 ignore the <basefont> tag. NN3 honours the tag but ignores the color and face attributes. IE honours all attributes.