How to specify font attributes for all elements on an html web page?

Question

When I set the font family, font size, color etc. it seems that some nested elements override these with ugly browser defaults.

Must I really specify those a dozens

Answer 1

If you're using IE, chances are it will revert to the browser defaults for certain elements, like tables. You can counter that with something like the following CSS:

html, body, form, fieldset, table, tr, td, img {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    font: 100%/150% calibri,helvetica,sans-serif;
}

input, button, select, textarea, optgroup, option {
    font-family: inherit;
    font-size: inherit;
    font-style: inherit;
    font-weight: inherit;
}

/* rest of your styles; like: */
body {
    font-size: 0.875em;
}

Edit: you may want to read up on CSS resets; see threads like this one