Browser
“Safe” Fonts
By: Shruti Gupta
Fonts make a big difference to the look and experience
of the website. Usage of fonts requires sense of aesthetics
and discretion. We have the liberty to use any font
we want in an image but when we specify the fonts
for the text on a web page, we need to ensure that
we use only “browser safe” fonts.
Browsers support TrueType fonts and all operating
systems come with sets of standard TrueType fonts
that have been preinstalled. These preinstalled TrueType
fonts are what we can say are “browser safe”
fonts.
My recommendation is to specify at least three fonts
from the following list in the stylesheet. Out of
the three fonts specified, make sure that at least
one of them is available in Macintosh and one for
Windows. Also, please remember that multi-word font
names should be in quotes (example “Times New
Roman”).
So, here is a list of fonts that are preinstalled
in Windows and Macintosh computers as they come out
of the box.
Windows OS
• Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Arial Black
• Comic Sans (Bold)
• Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Franklin Gothic Medium (Italic) – as of
Windows XP
• Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Impact
• Lucida Console
• Lucida Sans Unicode
• Marlett
• MS Sans Serif – as of Windows XP
• Palatino Linotype (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Symbol
• Tahoma (Bold)
• Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Webdings
Mac OS
• American Typewriter (Bold)
• Andale Mono – Only installed in OS X if
Classic is installed
• Apple Chancery
• Apple Symbols
• Arial (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Arial Black
• Arial Narrow (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Arial Rounded MT Bold
• Baskerville (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Big Caslon
• Brush Script MT
• Capitals - Only installed in OS X if Classic
is installed
• Charcoal - Only installed in OS X if Classic
is installed
• Chicago - Only installed in OS X if Classic
is installed
• Cochin (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Comic Sans MS (Bold)
• Copperplate (Bold)
• Courier (Bold, Oblique, Bold Oblique) - Only
installed in OS X if Classic is installed
• Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Didot (Bold, Italic)
• Futura (Sans-serif)
• Gadget - Only installed in OS X if Classic
is installed
• Geneva
• Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Gill Sans (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Helvetica (Bold, Oblique, Bold Oblique)
• Helvetica Neue (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Herculanum
• Hoefler Text (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Impact
• Marker Felt
• Monaco
• New York - Only installed in OS X if Classic
is installed
• Optima (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Palatino (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) - Only
installed in OS X if Classic is installed
• Papyrus
• Sand - Only installed in OS X if Classic is
installed
• Skia
• Symbol
• Techno - Only installed in OS X if Classic
is installed
• Textile - Only installed in OS X if Classic
is installed
• Times (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Times New Roman (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Trebuchet (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Verdana (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic)
• Webdings - Only installed in OS X if Classic
is installed
• Zapf Dingbats
• Zapfino
