What is generic fonts?

In web typography, there are 5 font-families: serif, sans-serif, monotype, cursive, and fantasy.

On the internet, these are used because no web designer can be sure of what fonts are installed on your computer. S/he can give your browser a list of fonts that s/he would like to se the text displayed with, but what actually appears on your screen depends on whether any of these fonts exist on your system.

To make the browser show the text in a sans-serif typeface, the webdesigner might ask for

Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

and if neither Arial nor Helvetica are installed, the browser will use it's default sans-serif font.

Your generic font setup:

Below, you can see examples of the default fonts for each family with your browser setup:

This is an example of your serif font.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzæøå

This is an example of your sans-serif font.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzæøå

This is an example of your monotype font.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzæøå

This is an example of your cursive font.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzæøå

This is an example of your fantasy font.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzæøå

How to change font

In Netscape and Internet Explorer, you can only change the settings for "serif" and "sans-serif" or "monospace", whereas in Opera you have total control.

Opera:

• Select Preferences from the file-menu.
• Select "Documents" from the list of categories.
• Select the CSS generic family you want to change in the box "User fonts and colors" on the right. You may have to scroll down to find them.
• Click the little button with three dots to make your font-choice
• OK, OK...

Internet Explorer:

• Select "Options" on the Tools-menu
• Click the "Font"-button
• In left box, you can choose the serif-font, in right the sans-serif. If you want to annoy a webdesigner, you could even mix the settings and make your serif a sans-serif and vice versa...
• OK you way out

Netscape:

• Select "Preferences" on the Edit-menu
• Select "Fonts" under "Appearance" in the right-hand column
• Choose your "Variable width" (serif) font and "Fixed width" (monotype).
• OK