Fonts: Most Common on the Web

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Most Common Fonts on the Web

If you are wondering which are the best fonts to use, then the ones that come with MSIE (Microsoft Internet Explorer) are your best bets because in the last few years, the MSIE fonts have been installed on every new Windows and Mac computers. Following are a list of some of the most common fonts used on the internet. They are sometimes referred to as "browser safe fonts". However there is no universally identical list of "browser safe fonts".

You might be wondering why you should restrict yourself to this small list when you have so many more beautiful fonts on your system. When you are designing for the Web, it does not matter how it might look on your browser because the fonts you use are only visible to people who have those identical fonts on their computers. So if you use some exotic font, a user who does not have those fonts installed on their computer will see something all together different - sometimes drastically so!

Browser Safe Fonts

Generic Type	Font on	Font on	Comments
cursive			[Bold, Italic] Easily legible on screen. The default cursive font for Internet Explorer.
monospace			Courier New is a scalable font, usually available on both Windows and Mac. It is preferable to Courier, which on the Windows system is not a scalable font.
monospace			Monaco is present on all Macs
sans-serif			[Bold, Italic] Helvetica is a Mac system font since 1984.
sans-serif			Arial Black & Gadget is less common than Arial. Unnecesasry to use with a bold font-weight; it’s bold enough already. Gadget is usually not on pre-1999 Macs.
sans-serif			Less common than other MSIE fonts such as Arial. Very heavy, black font, good for headlines.
sans-serif			Tahoma is present on even very old Windows PCs. Geneva is a Mac system font since 1984.
sans-serif			Designed for on-screen legibility.
sans-serif			Verdana is possibly the most readable of the sans-serif fonts commissioned by Microsoft for on-screen use. However, Verdana shouldn’t be used side-by-side with same-sized serif fonts, because Verdana will appear one or two sizes larger.
serif			[Bold, Italic] Designed by Microsoft for WWW use. Georgia is a traditional looking font with “old-style” numerals.
serif			Palatino is a nice serif. Present on all Macs and fairly common on all Window PCs.
serif			Times New Roman is the most common serif font on the Web. The default serif font in most browsers. A scalable font. Better suited for printed works than for legible readibility on the web. Times is a non-scalable font.