CSS question

This is a novice question -- I mainly do server-side scripting and never had / took the time to learn css.

If one were to use css (in which font faces, sizes, etc are specified), a visitor using an old browser (pre 4.0 standards) would be unable to see the effects of the css. Right?

How to work around this problem?

This is correct for NN < 4 and IE < 3. NN 4 and IE 3 have limited and partially buggy CSS support. But since they aren't used anymore that much, this is hardly a problem. You you absolutely need to support old browsers, you can either use tag attributes only or use both CSS and attributes. However, many formatting attributes are deprecated in HTML4/XHTML and use of CSS for formatting is strongly encouraged by W3C.

If you're really curious about CSS font formatting support in a variety of browsers, look at the "Font Properties" table on Web Review's "Style Sheet Reference Master Grid," then compare it to statistics like these at thecounter.com.

If I absolutely had to support IE3-- and NS4-- (after I shot myself in the foot) I'd sniff out those browsers and send them to a compatible page, with only font tags... much easier than trying to figure out the compatibility inconsistancies between the browsers...