Common Web-safe fonts for Mac and Windows

When designing for the web, it is recommended to make sure that the web site will look good on most, if not all, of the computers that will access it. Most of the web users use either Windows or Mac OS to surf the web. Both operating systems come with pre-installed fonts out of the box.

The table below lists web-safe fonts that are common for both Windows and Macintosh. The Windows fonts are included with Windows XP and later, and the Mac fonts are included with Mac OS X. I am not going to mention Windows 98/95 or Mac OS 8/9 as these are legacy systems and the number of users using them for web is shrinking on a daily basis.

Sans-serif Fonts

Font Sample Recommended CSS Stack
Arial
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Arial, “Helvetica Neue”, Helvetica, sans-serif
Arial Black
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Arial Black, sans-serif
Impact
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Impact, sans-serif
Lucida
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, sans-serif
Tahoma
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif
Trebuchet MS
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Trebuchet MS, Helvetica, sans-serif
Verdana
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif
MS Sans Serif
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

MS Sans Serif, Geneva, sans-serif

Serif Fonts

Font Sample Recommended CSS Stack
Georgia
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Georgia, serif
Palatino
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Palatino Linotype, Palatino, serif
Times New Roman
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Times New Roman, Times, serif
MS Serif
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

MS Serif, New York, serif

Special and monospaced fonts

Font Sample Recommended CSS Stack
Comic Sans MS
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Comic Sans MS, cursive
Courier
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Courier New, Courier, monospace
Lucida Console
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Lucida Console, Monaco, monospace

Symbol fonts

Font Sample Recommended CSS Stack
Symbol
Lorem
Symbol
Webdings
Lorem
Webdings
Zapf Dingbats
Lorem

Zapf Dingbats

5 thoughts on “Common Web-safe fonts for Mac and Windows

  1. Pingback: How to make killer email designs

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *