The font you use should be easy to read on a 14 inch monitor. 10pt is good for the body, 8pt's for navigation if you need the space. Safe fonts that are easy to read on the screen are Verdana and Arial. When adding headings, use heading 1,2,3, etc. and use normal for the body text. If the background isn't meaningful then don't use it.
Backgrounds can give pages a nice look if done tastefully.
On Department pages, and Student Service pages, do not use backgrounds . A background safe color for a cell is acceptable. Back to the Top Maintenance Maintain the content on your page. Old and incorrect data is worse than no data. Click here for a chart of web safe colors.