The BASEFONT Tag
dead tags 1995 deadSet the font for the rest of the document, from a tag with no closing tag.
In 2026: Dead. Removed from HTML5 and no longer implemented. Sizes ran 1 to 7 with 3 as normal, which is also why you see size=+1 and size=-1 everywhere in old markup.
Where it came from: HTML 3.2, W3C, 1997. Deprecated in HTML 4.0, 1998. MDN ↗
<basefont size="4" color="#000080" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
<p>Everything after that tag inherits size 4 navy Arial.</p>
<p><font size="+1">One step bigger than the basefont.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1">One step smaller.</font></p>
<!-- The 2026 version -->
<style>body { font: 16px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000080 }</style>