Editing Encyclopedia:Signatures (section)

=== Font tags ===
{{shortcut|WP:SIGFONT}}
{{tag|font}} tags were deprecated in [[HTML4]] and are entirely obsolete in [[HTML5]]. This means that the popular browsers may drop support for them at some point. Wikipedia is already preparing for this by [[lint (software)|delinting]] code project-wide through [[Wikipedia:Linter|Linter]], and by [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)&oldid=1192094205#RfC:_disallowing_new_signatures_obsolete_tags disallowing obsolete tags in new signatures]. When support is finally dropped, the tags will be ignored in all existing signatures; any properties such as color and font family will revert to their default values. For this reason, it is recommended that you use {{tag|span}} tags and CSS properties instead. For usage examples, see {{section link|Wikipedia:Signature tutorial|Real-life examples}}. You may request additional coding assistance at [[Wikipedia:Help desk]].

When you change your signature, it does not affect signatures that you used on pages in the past. Therefore, if you currently use {{tag|font}} tags in your signature, switching to {{tag|span}} tags now will reduce the number of your signatures (including those in the archives of talk spaces) that will render incorrectly after the browsers drop support for {{tag|font}}. Moreover, [[Wikipedia:Refactoring talk pages|refactoring]] old signatures from you and other users (including in archive pages) by changing {{tag|font|o}} tags to {{tag|span|o}} tags can help prepare the project for this eventual loss of support.