Why is the font element not supported in HTML5?

Question

I am just curious really and hope that someone can reveal the method in the madness of the W3C. What is the reason for not supporting this element in the latest HTML5 standard? I know the element was deprecated in HTML 4.01, but I don't understand why.

It seemed perfectly logical to me, you have a a paragraph of text and just wish to change the font, or to identify, lines or words from it using the font element, now the only way to do the job is with the span element. It seems strange to me that there are so many ways to create a block of text, using div, section, or just paragraph, but to wrap a few keywords or any inline content, there is only the span element.

And really, one little element can't do any harm, so why not still support it?

Thank you,

Luke

Answer 1

In short:

HTML is a markup language. Use it to mark up the different sections of your content using the most semantically accurate element.

CSS is used for styling purposes, such as changing colors, sizes, fonts, etc.

The <font> element was used for styling, not marking up a section of your content. That's why it's deprecated, along with other out-of-place elements such as <center>.