Abstract This review considers the observations of hot, hydrogen-rich white dwarf stars, with particular reference to measurements of temperature, surface gravity and composition. Spectroscopic data from a variety of wavelength ranges are required for this work and, in particular, the important contributions from optical, ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet studies are discussed. Using the values of Teff and log g determined for an individual white dwarf, estimates of mass and radius might be derived from the theoretical mass-radius relation. The issue of the accuracy of the theoretical mass-radius calculations and the prospects for making empirical tests using observational data are outlined.
Keywords stars: white dwarfs --- ultraviolet --- spectroscopy --- mass --- radius
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