WebspaceWorks Resources
In Fonts and Web Typography
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- Font Families & Web-safe Fonts: The Point of Penultimate Resort
- Visual reference to 19 fonts for cross-platform web design
- Fonts for web design: further comparison of cross-platform dependability
- Aspect values and x-widths for fonts
- Reliability of “Web–safe” fonts
Fonts for web design: further comparison of cross-platform dependability
11th February, 2007: Updated, based upon February update to the Codestyle.
When selecting fonts for use in web pages it is all too easy to fall into the ‘playing it safe’ rut of the supposedly web-safe set of fonts. Alternatives are invariably ignored, as is the way font-families based upon this small subset of fonts degrade on minority operating systems, i.e. unix.
In expanding upon the basic summary of Reliability of ‘Web-safe’ fonts, this article goes beyond examining just the ‘safe’ set and presents results for 31 of the most commonly encountered fonts from all operating systems, in a way that more easily allows for cross-platform comparison.
As previously, the available online font surveys from Codestyle and Visibone provide the statistical basis for this article.
For each operating system, the top 12 – 16 fonts, as listed in the Codestyle font survey were assembled into a single list, comprising 31 fonts across all-platforms. The frequency with which these fonts were found in each operating system was then obtained, primarily from the codestyle font survey or, if unavailable there, from the visibone font survey.
In the tables that follow the figures in brackets are derived from Visibone, while all others come from Codestyle.
| Font | Windows | Mac | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courier | (97%) | 95.20% | 84.73% |
| Arial Black | 95.49% | 95.57% | 53.47% |
| Verdana | 94.27% | 92.80% | 54.38% |
| Comic Sans MS | 93.94% | 92.00% | 50.15% |
| Arial | 93.90% | 95.73% | 68.88% |
| Impact | 93.53% | 86.40% | 51.66% |
| Courier New | 93.49% | 91.47% | 69.49% |
| Tahoma | 93.23% | 71.67% | (18%) |
| Lucida Console | 93.16% | — | (18%) |
| Trebuchet MS | 91.05% | 91.47% | 48.34% |
| Helvetica | (88%) | 95.47% | 70.89% |
| Times | (87%) | 85.87% | 61.67% |
| Lucida Sans Unicode | 86.65% | — | (18%) |
| Arial Narrow | 84.62% | 86.40% | (9%) |
| Georgia | 84.47% | 91.20% | 51.96% |
| Bookman Oldstyle | 81.15% | (19%) | (9%) |
| Century Gothic | 80.89% | (59%) | — |
| Book Antiqua | 79.37% | (19%) | (9%) |
| Times New Roman | 78.74% | 88.67% | 61.33% |
| Geneva | (22%) | 90.53% | — |
| Monaco | (22%) | 95.87% | — |
| Skia | (20%) | 87.20% | — |
| Bitstream Vera Sans | (11%) | (9%) | 76.23% |
| Bitstream Vera Sans Mono | (11%) | (8%) | 78.448% |
| Bitstream Vera Serif | (11%) | (9%) | 68.61% |
| Utopia | (7%) | (4%) | 73.49% |
| New Century Schoolbook | (6%) | (3%) | 61.10% |
| Fixed | (3%) | — | 67.44% |
| Nimbus Mono | (3%) | (1%) | 78.39% |
| Century Schoolbook L | (2%) | — | 79.54% |
| URW Chancery L | — | — | 68.30% |
| Font | Windows | Mac | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monaco | (22%) | 95.87% | — |
| Arial | 93.90% | 95.73% | 68.88% |
| Arial Black | 95.49% | 95.57% | 53.47% |
| Helvetica | (88%) | 95.47% | 70.89% |
| Courier | (97%) | 95.20% | 84.73% |
| Verdana | 94.27% | 92.80% | 54.38% |
| Comic Sans MS | 93.94% | 92.00% | 50.15% |
| Courier New | 93.49% | 91.47% | 69.49% |
| Trebuchet MS | 91.05% | 91.47% | 48.34% |
| Georgia | 84.47% | 91.20% | 51.96% |
| Geneva | (22%) | 90.53% | — |
| Times New Roman | 78.74% | 88.67% | 61.33% |
| Skia | (20%) | 87.20% | — |
| Arial Narrow | 84.62% | 86.40% | (9%) |
| Impact | 93.53% | 86.40% | 51.66% |
| Times | (87%) | 85.87% | 61.67% |
| Tahoma | 93.23% | 71.67% | (18%) |
| Century Gothic | 80.89% | (59%) | — |
| Book Antiqua | 79.37% | (19%) | (9%) |
| Bookman Oldstyle | 81.15% | (19%) | (9%) |
| Bitstream Vera Sans | (11%) | (9%) | 76.23% |
| Bitstream Vera Serif | (11%) | (9%) | 68.61% |
| Bitstream Vera Sans Mono | (11%) | (8%) | 78.448% |
| Utopia | (7%) | (4%) | 73.49% |
| New Century Schoolbook | (6%) | (3%) | 61.10% |
| Nimbus Mono | (3%) | (1%) | 78.39% |
| Century Schoolbook L | (2%) | — | 79.54% |
| Fixed | (3%) | — | 67.44% |
| Lucida Console | 93.16% | — | (18%) |
| Lucida Sans Unicode | 86.65% | — | (18%) |
| URW Chancery L | — | — | 68.30% |
| Font | Windows | Mac | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courier | (97%) | 95.20% | 84.73% |
| Bitstream Vera Sans Mono | (11%) | (8%) | 78.48% |
| Century Schoolbook L | (2%) | — | 79.54% |
| Bitstream Vera Sans | (11%) | (9%) | 76.23% |
| Nimbus Mono | (3%) | (1%) | 78.39% |
| Utopia | (7%) | (4%) | 73.49% |
| Helvetica | (88%) | 95.47% | 70.89% |
| Courier New | 93.49% | 91.47% | 69.49% |
| Arial | 93.90% | 95.73% | 68.88% |
| Bitstream Vera Serif | (11%) | (9%) | 68.61% |
| URW Chancery L | — | — | 68.30% |
| Fixed | (3%) | — | 67.44% |
| Times | (87%) | 85.87% | 61.67% |
| Times New Roman | 78.74% | 88.67% | 61.33% |
| New Century Schoolbook | (6%) | (3%) | 61.10% |
| Verdana | 94.27% | 92.80% | 54.38% |
| Arial Black | 95.49% | 95.57% | 53.47% |
| Georgia | 84.47% | 91.20% | 51.96% |
| Impact | 93.53% | 86.40% | 51.66% |
| Comic Sans MS | 93.94% | 92.00% | 50.15% |
| Trebuchet MS | 91.05% | 91.47% | 48.34% |
| Lucida Console | 93.16% | — | (18%) |
| Lucida Sans Unicode | 86.65% | — | (18%) |
| Tahoma | 93.23% | 71.67% | (18%) |
| Arial Narrow | 84.62% | 86.40% | (9%) |
| Book Antiqua | 79.37% | (19%) | (9%) |
| Bookman Oldstyle | 81.15% | (19%) | (9%) |
| Century Gothic | 80.89% | (59%) | — |
| Geneva | (22%) | 90.53% | — |
| Monaco | (22%) | 95.87% | — |
| Skia | (20%) | 87.20% | — |
No surprise!
Unix seems to inhabit a little world all its own when it comes to fonts, with its most common fonts falling outside the set that is commonly accepted as being “Web-safe”. OK, font-families will always fall back to the generic font for the platform, but there is really no reason for the website designer to cede control of this to the browser when suitable candidates do exist and could be specified as part of the font-family.
Some surprises!
What was surprising was the relatively low availability reported for Times New Roman, especially on Windows and Mac platforms, but this is potentially down to the manual nature of the Codestyle font-survey and the “invisibility’ of the Times New Roman typeface.
So what?!
This again is intended as no more than a rough guide, presenting a summary of available information drawn primarily from one of the two available online font surveys, and susceptable to the weaknesses inherent to it.
The numbers are still of interest, and go further to confirm the uniqueness of unix as a browsing platform, one that warrents particular attention from web developers if it is to be dealt with in a controlled manner.
What this article does is to identify some of the best candidate fonts for use on unix, something that the previous reliability article missed because of its focus on the “Web-safe” subset of fonts that the most common unix fonts do not fall under.
Copyright on information presented here in summarised form remains with the respective originators, as credited above.
