If you only plan to have one or two pages for your site, setting the font, size and color properties of text manually can be easier than setting up a style sheet. Later, in the Web Publishing section, we show you how to create a style sheet if you have bigger plans for your site.

Highlight any text you wish to change. Your web design software should have a "Type" or Text" menu where you can select a specific font, size or text color.

When choosing your Font, stick with common fonts like Times, Helvetica, Arial or Verdana to ensure you are using a face that most people have on their systems. Since the font properties of the site relies on the visitor having the font on their system, using an obscure font will cause their computer will pick another font and the site won't look like you intended. In addition, the fonts listed above are easy to read on computer screens. If you do want to use a special font for the page title or another element, create it as a graphic element so it will appear the same no matter what fonts your visitors have.

Keep monitor resolution in mind when choose a type size. If you choose too small, your page will be hard to read on high resolution screens where text may appear smaller. On the other hand, going too big will look silly on low resolution screens.

When choosing a font color, be sure you allow enough contrast between the background and the text. While it may fit the holiday season, red text on a green background (or vice-versa) doesn't offer enough contrast to be read easily. Use black or a very dark colored text over a white or light colored background and white or very light text over a black or very dark background.

One final note about color: don't use light blue for your main text. This color is generally accepted as the color for hyperlinks. Likewise, you should use blue for your hyperlinks whenever possible. Finally, don't underline text that isn't a clickable hyperlink. This will confuse visitors. If you want to emphasize words, use italics or bold text.