Where we should declare font size, line height and font-family to body, before css reset or after?

Question

For example if i'm using eric meyer reset and i have to apply this style to body.

body { font: 100%/1.5 "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif;*/ }

should i keep this before reset css or after?

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe,
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre,
a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code,
del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp,
small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var,
dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li,
fieldset, form, label, legend,
table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    border: 0;
    outline: 0;
    font-weight: inherit;
    font-style: inherit;
    font-size: 100%;
    font-family: inherit;
    vertical-align: baseline;
}
/* remember to define focus styles! */
:focus {
    outline: 0;
}
body {
    line-height: 1;
    color: black;
    background: white;
}
ol, ul {
    list-style: none;
}
/* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */
table {
    border-collapse: separate;
    border-spacing: 0;
}
caption, th, td {
    text-align: left;
    font-weight: normal;
}
blockquote:before, blockquote:after,
q:before, q:after {
    content: "";
}
blockquote, q {
    quotes: "" "";
}

Answer 1

If you don’t reset any font property that is set within your mentioned font rule, it doesn’t matter whether you put it before or after the reset as it won’t be altered by the reset.

---

Edit    Now that I see what reset you’re using:

For the inherit values it’s regardless whether you’re using your font rule before or after the reset. So font-family ("Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif) is the same for both variants. The same applies to properties that use the same values (font-size).

But the line-height values are different in both body rule sets (reset: 1; your rule: 1.5). And there you have to decide what value you want to have: If it’s 1, put your rule before the reset; if it’s 1.5 (and I guess so), put your rule after the reset.

Answer 2

The safest way to ensure that your CSS rules are used is to declare them after any resets.

Answer 3

Eric Meyer's reset includes a line that resets font values for body to inherit, so if you use his verbatim, you would have to include your font declaration after the reset.

Answer 4

After basically. The reset is to set a base from which you work, so the reset goes first, then you get more consistent results on browsers after that - so basically you do what you normally would after the reset.

Cascades go from first to last and less to more specific selectors.

Answer 5

As Gumbo said, it doesn't matter where you put it if you don't reset the font, and Eric Meyer's reset inherits font properties, so it's ok to declare it also before the reset, BUT if you want to follow some guidelines and write it based on some elementary architecture logic if you set some properties to an object, then reset it (destruct), those properties are supposed to be long gone.

So I'd suggest to do anything you want after the reset. Maybe at some point you will forgot that font property hasn't been overwritten and try to add there another style which will be reseted.

I always write my custom general styles after reset.