What is the reason that em takes precedence over p for font-family?

Take a look at this CSS snippet:

* {  font-family: Gill Sans, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif}

p {  font-family: Courier; }

Now let's consider this HTML markup:

<p>Hi there. So <em>very</em> pleased to make your acquaintance.</p>

Have you ever wondered why the <em> text is displayed in Gill Sans and not Courier? It may seem like a 'bug' or counterintuitive that the wildcard selector overrides the specific <p> style. While it might make sense in some cases where all tags have equal weight, it can be frustrating when dealing with specific styling needs.

So, the question remains - is there a way to apply 'modifiers' like <em> only to certain aspects of styling without affecting others?

htmlcssfont-family

Answer №1

* matches every element, including the <em> inside the <p>.
The font styling applied to the <em> would have been inherited from the <p>, but the * selector overrides it.

Using * is generally discouraged.
If you need to set a global font style, consider applying it to the body element instead. This allows for more specific rules to override it for certain elements and cascade down to their children.

Answer №2

When looking at the code provided, it is important to note that the font-family declaration for the em element is only set for *, meaning it will be applied regardless of any other font styles set on its parent element.

The concept of having 'modifiers' like <em> apply only to specific features does not align with how CSS works, as CSS always targets specific elements or properties. If a property is set on an em element, it will take effect unless overridden by another rule. In this case, there is no conflict in settings and only one rule is being applied.

Answer №3

One potential solution is to adjust your CSS as follows:

p, p * {  font-family: Courier; }

Alternatively, you could opt for the body selector over using *

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