Which fonts are generally web safe?

Cross platform FONTS for custom font families

[kapow]

I suspect someone must have asked about this recently.
For several years I have used the most basic fonts in html text.
- Times
- Arial
- Verdana
- Courier
- Georgia

Well, they are the default fonts in DW so thats all I use. Surely the world has moved on? Is it safe to expand that list? Is there a site somewhere with an up to date list of fonts available on most browsers? I know the Purists will say only use fonts that 101% of the entire world can see but I'm happy with 85%

So, can anyone update me? Is the world of html fonts where it was several years ago or are there more options now?

[Ranger]

I haven't heard much about different fonts being accepted on a wider basis.

If this is any help, I just came across this study of which fonts are the "best to use" - It adds in Tahoma and Schoolbook, neither of which I've ever considered using, but obviously someone must have.

As for the "best" to use:
"Of the fonts studied, Verdana appears to be the best overall font choice. Besides being the most preferred, it was read fairly quickly and was perceived as being legible."

[psychology.wichita.edu...]

But I'm sure there's a lot more studies like this out there.

[pcguru333]

In print I prefer Serif fonts for large amounts of text and san serif fonts for headlines, titles, etc.

On the web however I see very few sites that use serif fonts, any reason for this?

BTW I too am interested in knowing what are good font families to stick with. I know that Macs use different fonts and I am clueless when it comes to Mac users.

[kapow]

Usually I stick to the basics. But what are my font options when I want to do something special?

[Xoc]

There has been extensive discussion of this in the graphics forum. Start with this thread: [webmasterworld.com...]

[tedster]

> On the web however I see very few sites that use serif fonts, any reason for this?

There have been several studies that show sans-serif is perceived as easier and faster to read (even though this may not be the objective fact). Here's one such study from wichita.edu [psychology.wichita.edu]

I think the big problem with serif fonts on the web is the same thing that makes them an asset in print - they contain a lot of detail. Depending on the users system, this extra detail can be rendered in a very rough fashion - a mere approximation of the font which makes the page look pretty rugged.

As with color, so with font rendering - a lot depends on the user system. So on your top-end system those serif letter forms may look excellent, but not so on your neighbor's.

[pcguru333]

Good point tedster, thanks for the input

[Axacta]

Reading is done mostly by word recognition, rather than individual letter recognition. The recognition has to do with those parts of letters that protrude above and below the "x" height, as in the letters t and y. Anything that muddies up our ability to "recognize" words, as opposed to "reading" them slows reading down. Try reading the same sentence in all capitals, and then without capitals.

Besides the fact that serif fonts have the little tags and tails which makes them more difficult to render on a screen, they also do not render the variations in the thickness of different parts of the letter, below a certain font size. Both contribute to less word recognition.

[papabaer]

CodeStyle has an ongoing FONT SURVEY that displays statistics of popular installed fonts on Windows, MAC and Unix platforms. This can be an excellent reference when choosing custom font-families. [codestyle.org...]

There are some very interesting results as well.

[kapow]

Thankyou Everyone !!

I read through a lot of the threads (not all though) and found exactly what I wanted. Here is my summary - (please feel free to change/improve it):

1.) [codestyle.org...] Cross platform font survey results. I'm going to re-visit this site in future.

2.) This is exactly what I wanted when I posted this thread ;) a list of fairly safe fonts, beyond the very limited default list in DW:
> Here's Woz's roughly compatible font family list (from: [webmasterworld.com...] ):
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
Arial Black, Arial, Helvetica
Arial Rounded MT Bold, Arial, Helvetica
Book Antiqua, Times New Roman, Times
Bookman Old Style, Times New Roman, Times
Brush Script MT, Arial, Helvetica
Century Gothic, Arial, Helvetica
Century Schoolbook, Times New Roman, Times
Comic Sans MS, Arial, Helvetica
Garamond, Times New Roman, Times
Haettenschweiler, Arial, Helvetica
Impact, Arial, Helvetica
Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica
Times New Roman, Times
Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica
Verdana, Arial, Helvetica
Verdana, Geneva

3.) ---------------------------
*The most common fonts: Windows www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-WindowsResults.shtml
Comic Sans MS 89.41%
Arial Black 88.63%
Verdana 87.84%
Arial 86.67%
Impact 86.67%
Tahoma 86.27%
Courier New 85.10%
Arial Narrow 82.35%
Lucida Console 81.96%
Trebuchet MS 81.18%
Bookman Old Style 77.65%
Century Gothic 74.51%
Times New Roman 74.12%
Book Antiqua 72.16%
Georgia 70.59%
Haettenschweiler 70.20%
Lucida Sans Unicode 69.80%

*The most common fonts: Mac www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-MacResults.shtml
Helvetica 98.04%
Chicago 96.08%
Monaco 96.08%
Arial 94.12%
Geneva 94.12%
New York 94.12%
Charcoal 92.16%
Verdana 92.16%
Courier 90.20%
Trebuchet MS 90.20%
Comic Sans MS 88.24%
Techno 86.27%
Andale Mono 84.31%
Courier New 84.31%
Impact 84.31%
Apple Chancery 82.35% Sample
Capitals 82.35%
Palatino 82.35%
Sand 82.35%
Textile 82.35%
Gadget 80.39%
Skia 78.43% Sample
Times New Roman 78.43%
Georgia 74.51%
Times 72.55%

*The most common fonts Unix: www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-UnixResults.shtml

Courier 93.75%
Helvetica 93.75%
Fixed 87.50%
Lucida 87.50%
New Century Schoolbook 81.25%
Terminal 75.00% Sample
Times 75.00%
Utopia 75.00%

4.) Download new fonts
[microsoft.com...]

[papabaer]

I'd be interested to hear some "cross-platform" feedback from our members. Doe the CS Font Survey reflect your installed font list? Windows users tend to go a tad overboard on installed fonts... ;) But what about Mac & .NIX? What are your preferred fonts?

[tedster]

I'd particularly like to know if there's a Mac font that compares to Impact on Windows. It's a sans-serif display font, big fat and extra super bold verticals. Very common on Windows.