How Safe Are Web Safe Fonts
Web safe fonts are fonts that look good on screen and are relatively popular, so you can safely assume that your visitors will have this font on their system. Very often these fonts come with the operating system itself, so users have them installed by default. Still, there is no guarantee that the fonts you use will be installed on your users' computers.
Additionally, even if the font is installed on your users' computers, many of these fonts look good only with particular font sizes. For instance, some fonts are good at sizes such as 10 or 12 pixels (i.e. body text), while with larger or smaller font sizes they either look distorted or are unreadable.
After all these clarifications, which were necessary so that you know you should take any lists of web safe fonts with a grain of salt, let's see which fonts made it to the list.
21 Stunning Web Safe Fonts for You to Use
Here are 21 stunning web safe fonts, which are either widely available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, or have decent substitutes. If you like one - simply copy the CSS code found in the blue box and use it yourself.
Serif
font-family:"Georgia", serif;
font-family: 'Palatino Linotype', 'Book Antiqua', Palatino, serif;
font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;
font-family: 'MS Serif', 'New York', sans-serif;
font-family: Garamond, serif;
font-family: 'Bookman Old Style', serif;
Sans-Serif
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-family: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif;
font-family: 'Arial Narrow', sans-serif;
font-family: Symbol, sans-serif;
font-family: Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif;
font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif;
font-family: Century Gothic, sans-serif;
font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;
font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-family: 'MS Sans Serif', Geneva, sans-serif;
Monospace
font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-family: Courier, monospace;
font-family: 'Lucida Console', Monaco, monospace;
Cursive
font-family: 'Comic Sans MS', cursive;
Commented by: Grant, 19 October, 2009
If they're web safe fonts, why did you make them images?
Grant
Commented by: KiL, 19 October, 2009
I didn't know that the "Web" means Windows... Half of the fonts are not available on a Mac.
Commented by: thenonhacker, 20 October, 2009
@Grant: Good point.
And please do not recommend Comic Sans!!! :-O
Commented by: trice22, 20 October, 2009
Stunning? Really?
Commented by: Vsync, 20 October, 2009
Nice article, but this is better: http://dustinbrewer.com/fonts-on-the-web-and-a-list-of-web-safe-fonts/
Commented by: Greg, 20 October, 2009
Stunning is a little misleading. :)
Commented by: horrible, 20 October, 2009
horrible list
Commented by: Andris, 20 October, 2009
I'm sorry, but these fonts are neither "Stunning" nor "Web safe".
Commented by: Dirty Bird, 20 October, 2009
Are you serious? Why did you use images? Do you have the metrics on these? Here is an actual resource with the data to back it up http://www.3point7designs.com/blog/2008/05/8-fonts-you-probably-dont-use-in-css-but-should/
Commented by: Arthur Brown, 20 October, 2009
I have to agree that some of these fonts are not necessarily stunning nor completely web safe, but who in the world added comic sans to this list. All the others I can deal with but comic sans? Otherwise a good list and good to see the options presented here.
Commented by: Steven Howe, 20 October, 2009
C O M I C S A N S ?
Are you for real???
Commented by: Chad, 20 October, 2009
You fail at the internet.
Commented by: Inside the Webb, 20 October, 2009
Very useful collection of fonts. I've been looking for free fonts to mess around with for logos, these are perfect
Commented by: clippingimages, 20 October, 2009
Nice collection of fonts. Maximum are common. Thanks for sharing this nice post.
Commented by: Arki, 21 October, 2009
Wow, which cave did you dwell in for the last 15 years?
Commented by: luisinlandaes, 22 October, 2009
@Vsync:
Ok Kanye West.
Commented by: Paul Smart, 22 October, 2009
I wouldn't have called them stunning but thanks anyway
Commented by: Ali, 23 October, 2009
I'd like to know the name of the font in your own headers.
Commented by: dillu, 2 November, 2009
century gothic rocks ....
Commented by: Josh, 29 November, 2009
Why does everyone skip over Helvetica when they talk about web fonts?
Commented by: e. fairfax vere, 15 July, 2010
this is an interesting list and everyone has their favorite fonts, but this information is misleading and not that useful. arial is certainly not stunning and half of the fonts are not truly "web safe."
Commented by: enomsoft, 13 October, 2010
Its so nice