Heads, Subheads, and Body Text Styles
As mentioned on the typography homepage, the cascading style sheets (CSS) apply only to the navigation items (in the text-based templates) and body text, so additional local style sheets may be created for sites that require multiple head and subhead sizes, caption styles, and/or bylines. The core typeface, Arial, should be the first font choice in these situations.
The following specifications offer suggestions for styles and sizes that create a pleasing on-screen presentation of type. In these examples point size means the same as pixel size when specifying type. A configuration listed as 12/16 means 12 point type over 16 point leading.

Alignment
Because the USC Web templates use the left side of the screen for the majority of navigation and are anchored to the upper left, heads, subheads, and text in the content area look the best when aligned flush left. Mixing flush left, centered, and flush right alignments tends to create a disjointed look on the screen and makes the text harder to follow.

Color
The color for all linked text in the content area of a site is garnet (990000). The color for a visited link is dark gray (666666). This style is built into the css for body text and should be applied to all links whether they are in a list, head, subhead, or body.

Heads and Lists
For lists, in most situations, the heads can be set at the same 12/16 size as the as the body. The head should be set bold and all caps. The items in the list can be set regular or bold and be listed with or without bullets. Use an extra line space to separate items that run over to the next line if bullets are not used. The “Additional Type Specs” list at the top of this page uses bold type with bullets as its style.

Head Size Hierarchy
For blocks of text that are organized by subheads under a major heading, use size, case, and style to clearly display the type on screen. This page, for example, starts with the major heading set 14/16 in Arial bold, caps and lowercase. The subheads are set 12/16, Arial Bold, caps and lowercase. The leading for the heads and subheads is set at 16, like the body, to hold the blocks of text together. This style should work with heads up to 18 point. The leading would need to be increased for heads set larger than 18/16. Notice how second paragraphs are indented while a line space or return separates different blocks of text. This also works to hold the text together in easy-to-read blocks. If paragraphs are separated by a single line space instead of indented, a line space should be added after heads and subheads.
Along with size, case may also be used to define the hierarchy. For example, the major heading could be set in all caps and bold while the subheads are set in caps and lowercase, bold. A combination of regular, italic, bold, and bold italic styles can also be used with size to reinforce the hierarchy.

Additional Type Specs
• Header Page Titles
• Navigation Buttons
• Heads, Subheads, & Body