lucy24 - 11:31 pm on Jul 17, 2012 (gmt 0)

When loading up a page, the browser has to read everything on it. So any repeated information will, more or less by definition, add to the load time. That's what stylesheets are for. Say it once and you'll never need to say it again; change it once and it's changed everywhere. But it's probably not a significant time load, unless you've got an inherited file where each word is wrapped in several layers of mutually exclusive inline tags. (There's a pretty hilarious thread about this in--I think--foo, from about a year back.)

I use the <font> tag-- but not, of course, on my own site :)

Context #1 involves e-text production. There's a block of text that's inserted into a pre-existing page; some things like small caps are easier to approximate by
S<font size = "-1">MALL</font> C<font size = "-1">APS</font>
instead of the equally valid
<span style = "font-variant: small-caps">Small Caps</span>
Besides, it feels so wonderfully retro ;)

Context #2 is something analogous. Here I have to begin and end the insertion with
</font>
{my stuff here}
<font face = {et cetera}>
because, again, the surrounding material is out of my control and the insertion would otherwise go inside a <font>...</font> envelope. So I have to switch it off and then switch it on again.