I do this the quick and dirty way

Replace all <FONT> tags with a placeholder tag: {{{font}}} for instance.

Then kill all the other tags.

Then put the FONT tags back.

$html =~ s/<($tag[^>]*?)>/{{{$1}}}/sgi;# temp-encode starting tags
$html =~ s/<\/($tag[^>]*?)>/{{{\/$1}}}/sgi; # temp-encode ending tags
$html =~ s/<[^>]*?>//sgi;# kill all remaining tags
$html =~ s/\{{3}/</sgi;# re-encode '<' tags
$html =~ s/\}{3}/>/sgi;# re-encode '>'tags
[download]

($_='jjjuuusssttt annootthheer
     pppeeerrrlll haaaccckkeer')=~y/a-z//s;print;
[download]