CSS Font shorthand?

Question

I was basically trying to abbreviate "font-style" to just "font" by using the shorthand property. However, it only seems to work if I specify other properties (size/line height/font-family) too on the same selector.

If I comment out any additional specification, the "italic" is ignored! Am I missing something here or am I just not supposed to use

.main{font:italic;}

instead of (for instance)

.main{font-style:italic;}

or

.main{
font:italic 1em/1.2em georgia,"times new roman",serif;}

So, what's the minimum requirements for using the font shorthand?

Answer 1

The font-family and font-size are the minimum styles required for this style property.

Example:

font: 1em "Times New Roman", Times, serif;

An example of a full shorthand would be the following:

font: bold italic small-caps 1em/1.5em verdana,sans-serif

This would replace the original code below:

font-weight: bold;
font-style: italic;
font-variant: small-caps;
font-size: 1em;
line-height: 1.5em;
font-family: verdana,sans-serif

Answer 2

minimal specifications are size and font-name. In your case it will look like this:

.main{
 font: 1em  verdana;
}