font-family Doesn’t Fall Back the Way You Think – CSS Wizardry

A common CSS misconception: when you declare `font-family` on a child element with only one font value, the browser does not fall back to the parent's font stack if that font is unavailable. Instead, it falls back to the browser default (often Times New Roman), causing visual flashes or layout shifts. The fix is always to declare a complete font stack on every `font-family` declaration, not just on the root element. This matters for both visual consistency and Core Web Vitals CLS scores.