Web Safe Fonts

The concept of Web-safe colours - the set of colours which can be shown cleanly on both Macs and PCs with 8-bit displays - has been around for years. But the idea of Web-safe fonts is rarely mentioned. There are a number of typefaces which are installed as standard by versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser (which is supplied as standard in both the Mac OS and Windows). Some of these are generally not worth bothering with because of poor legibility as body text, although they can be effective when used at larger sizes. Arial and Arial Black, Comic Sans and Impact all fall into this category; they are definitely typographically suspect at smaller sizes. Times New Roman is also not ideal: it begins to hold together better at 12 points, but the default tracking is a little tight. Symbol, WebDings and WingDings are useful sources of typographic ornament and mathematical symbols. Courier New is a monospaced font generally best reserved for displaying code samples or fake tabular data. That leaves just three reliable Web-safe choices. Georgia is an excellent serif face which remains exceptionally clear even when set at 9 point italic. Verdana and Trebuchet are also very clear sans serif faces, although Trebuchet is a little less well spaced, and is arguably less well designed than Verdana.
 

Arial is fairly similar to Helvetica, and is the default display font for Windows. It isn’t a terrible choice for on-screen use, but it isn’t exactly a good one either. There are noticable problems with character shapes and letter spacing at smaller sizes.
First shipped as standard with Windows 3.1.

Arial Black is a special display version of Arial. Curiously, it appears to have slightly fewer problems with clarity at smaller sizes, but it really isn’t a good choice for anything other than the occasional bit of display typesetting.
First shipped as standard with Internet Explorer 3.

Courier New is a special monospaced font; each character takes up the same width as all others in a given type size. It is generally used to simulate tabular data and program-style code. Not to be confused with Courier, a virtually identical version found only on Macs.
First shipped as standard with Windows 3.1.

Comic Sans is designed to mimic the hand lettering found in comics. It remains fairly clear at small sizes, but the letter shapes are a bit quirky for regular, serious use.
First shipped as standard with Internet Explorer 3.

Georgia is a serif font designed by Matthew Carter for both Web and print use. It remains exceptionally clear right down to 9 points, and is a good replacement for Times New Roman.
First shipped as standard with Internet Explorer 4.

Impact is a strong, compact display font, but like Arial Black it should be avoided for anything other than short display setting.
First shipped as standard with Internet Explorer 3.

Symbol is essentially a collection of greek style symbols, useful for various forms of mathematical typesetting but not much else. One for the specialists, but make a mental note of the sort of things it contains.
First shipped as standard with Windows 3.1/System 6.

The default typeface for Web browsers. This becomes acceptable from 12 points and up, but it is not the best choice for those concerned with small, legible text. Virtually identical to Times, a font shipped with the Mac for many years.
First shipped as standard with Windows 3.1

Trebuchet is a widespread sans serif which can work fairly well at different sizes on screen. However the problems with spacing at smaller sizes mean it isn’t a match for Verdana.
First shipped as standard with Internet Explorer 4.

An exceptionally clear font for both print and screen. It has an unusually large x-height and broad body, which combine with the built-in hinting to make it the clearest of the Web-safe font set for small text.
First shipped as standard with Internet Explorer 3.

WebDings is a dingbat font, a collection of clip art-style graphic symbols in typeface form. This can be a good way to get graphic-style touches in a page without actually using any pictures.
First shipped as standard with Internet Explorer 4.

WingDings is a more general purpose dingbat font than WebDings. It contains simple zodiac signs, calligraphic ornaments and a number of simple computer-related images.
First shipped as standard with Windows 3.1.