Where to set font-family: body or html element?

Question

Where is it best to declare the font-family CSS property? On the html or body element?

html {     font-family: sans-serif; } 

or

body {     font-family: sans-serif; } 

I searched online, but I cant find a definitive answer.

Answer 1

Best practice is to set the font-family in the body.

body {    font-family: Arial !important; } 

The !important is useful here so that in case you are using any other framework, your font-family does not get overridden.

You can also use the * selector.

* {     font-family: Arial !important; } 

The *-selector means any/all elements, but will obviously be on the bottom of the property chain when it comes to overriding more specific selectors.

Note that the !important flag will render the font-style for * to be absolute, even if other selectors have been used to set the text (for example, the body or maybe a p).