\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [May 27, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/html-table-with-default-observables-font/6625 "2022-05-27T22:06:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@Lao](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/Lao)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/html-table-with-default-observables-font/6625/1 "2022-05-27T22:06:14Z")
I’d like to use html tables to format a notebook, but the default html font is different than what is used by default in the notebook. Is there any way to fix this?
---
**Author:**  [@tophtucker](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/tophtucker)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 10:53pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/html-table-with-default-observables-font/6625/2 "2022-05-27T22:53:26Z")
The default CSS sets three variables for three groups of font families:
```css
:root {
--serif: "Source Serif Pro", "Iowan Old Style", "Apple Garamond",
"Palatino Linotype", "Times New Roman", "Droid Serif", Times, serif,
"Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol";
--sans-serif: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "avenir next", avenir,
helvetica, "helvetica neue", ubuntu, roboto, noto, "segoe ui", arial,
sans-serif;
--monospace: Menlo, Consolas, monospace;
}
```
You can use those variables in your own code. So, for example, you can write `font-family: var(--serif)` in the style attribute of any HTML and get Source Serif Pro (or one of its fallbacks).
By default, serif is used for headings and paragraphs; sans-serif is used for tables and inputs; monospace is used for code blocks. For example:
```css
html {
font: 17px/1.5 var(--serif);
}
table {
font: 13px/1.2 var(--sans-serif);
}
pre {
font: 14px/1.5 var(--monospace);
}
```
Here’s an example where I have a table using the default paragraph font:
> **[Table with serif font](https://observablehq.com/@tophtucker/table-with-serif-font)**
>
> Re: Lao in the forum: I’d like to use html tables to format a notebook, but the default html font is different than what is used by default in the notebook. Is there any way to fix this? Here’s a table using the default paragraph font styles:
I’m not sure I’ve understood exactly what you’re trying to do, so if you have an example notebook where something’s not working, post a link and I can take a look.
---
**Author:**  [@Lao](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/Lao)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2022, 11:17pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/html-table-with-default-observables-font/6625/3 "2022-05-27T23:17:53Z")
This is exactly what I needed, thank you so much! (^u^)