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CSS fonts should be based on a generic font family to ensure an appropriate style font is rendered in any circumstances. Preferred font names should be declared in order of preference in a comma separated font family list tailored for specific platforms.

CSS font family: cursive

Cursive fonts have a hand written style, are usually inclined and sometimes have strokes that extend into swashes. Cursive font faces have a wide variety of font styles, so are best used cautiously on the Web, with the CSS font family name cursive.

The most common cursive fonts

The only cursive font that is likely to be present on all systems is Microsoft Comic Sans MS, but its frequency on Unix family systems is quite low. Monotype Corsiva on Windows and URW Chancery on Unix and Linux systems are very similar to Apple Chancery on Mac. Brush Script MT is available on Mac OSX systems and Windows, but it is not common on either platform overall.

Cursive font names may indicate the style of lettering, with suffixes "hand", "handwriting", "script", "calligraphy" and "chancery".

Most common cursive fonts on Windows systems to 6 March 2010
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
Comic Sans MS 99.07% 99.07% Text Image
Monotype Corsiva 82.15% 82.15% Text Image
Bradley Hand ITC 62.82% 62.82% Text Image
Tempus Sans ITC 62.32% 62.32% Text Image
French Script MT 62.17% 62.17% Text Image
Kristen ITC 60.83% 60.83% Text Image
Mistral 60.83% 60.83% Text Image
Edwardian Script ITC 60.13% 60.13% Text Image
Maiandra GD 60.13% 60.13% Text Image
Blackadder ITC 59.33% 59.33% Text Image
Vivaldi 58.04% 58.04% Text Image
Pristina 56.94% 56.94% Text
Freestyle Script 55.15% 55.15% Text
Lucida Handwriting 54.29% 54.29% Text Image
Script MT Bold 52.66% 52.66% Text
Palace Script MT 51.72% 51.72% Text
Rage Italic 51.02% 51.02% Text
Forte 50.92% 50.92% Text
Gigi 50.67% 50.67% Text
Lucida Calligraphy 50.62% 50.62% Text
Viner Hand ITC 50.62% 50.62% Text
Brush Script MT 49.78% 49.78% Text Image
Vladimir Script 49.28% 49.28% Text
Informal Roman 49.13% 49.13% Text
Kunstler Script 49.03% 49.03% Text
Staccato222 BT 13.26% 13.26% Text
Calligraph421 BT 9.12% 9.12% Text
ParkAvenue BT 8.87% 8.87% Text
Cataneo BT 8.57% 8.57% Text
Jenkins v2.0 8.06% 8.06% Text
GlooGun 7.96% 7.96% Text
Fat 7.91% 7.91% Text
John Handy LET 7.61% 7.61% Text
La Bamba LET 7.51% 7.51% Text
Rage Italic LET 7.51% 7.51% Text
Ruach LET 7.51% 7.51% Text
One Stroke Script LET 7.06% 7.06% Text
Tiranti Solid LET 6.96% 6.96% Text
Smudger LET 6.85% 6.85% Text
Pepita MT 3.38% 3.38% Text
Andy 3.33% 3.33% Text
Bickley Script 2.67% 2.67% Text
DomBold BT 2.52% 2.52% Text
Fine Hand 2.42% 2.42% Text
Mercurius Script MT Bold 1.81% 1.81% Text
A Charming Font 1.71% 1.71% Text
Apple Chancery 1.59% 1.59% Text
BudHand 1.36% 1.36% Text
Mead Bold 1.01% 1.01% Text
Champignon 0.60% 0.60% Text
Textile 0.05% 0.05% Text

Font stack builder: Start a cursive font stack

Most common cursive fonts on Mac systems to 6 March 2010
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
Apple Chancery 90.23% 90.23% Text Image
Comic Sans MS 89.94% 89.94% Text Image
Zapfino 87.93% 87.93% Text Image
Brush Script MT 85.92% 85.92% Text Image
Casual 49.54% 49.54% Text
Lucida Handwriting 31.50% 31.50% Text Image
Monotype Corsiva 22.94% 22.94% Text
Textile 13.76% 13.76% Text Image
Sand 12.23% 12.23% Text Image
Adobe Garamond 5.50% 5.50% Text
Apple Casual 3.67% 3.67% Text
Shelley 1.83% 1.83% Text
Zapf Chancery 1.22% 1.22% Text Image
Caflisch Script Pro 0.92% 0.92% Text
Kaufmann 0.92% 0.92% Text
Porcelain 0.92% 0.92% Text

Font stack builder: Start a cursive font stack

Most common cursive fonts on Unix systems to 6 March 2010
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
URW Chancery L 97.19% 97.19% Text Image
Comic Sans MS 60.00% 60.00% Text
Domestic Manners 24.36% 24.36% Text

Font stack builder: Start a cursive font stack

Web font classification

Font stacks for print style sheets

Our main interest is to build reliable font stacks for screen rendering, but CSS allows us to specify a different font stack to print Web pages. The most reliable way to apply print media style sheets is to use the media attribute on the style sheet link element. The selectors you choose and font-family declarations you add to this style sheet will only apply when the page is printed. 

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
      href="/styles/print.css" media="print" />

What font combinations would you choose for print? Use the font stack builder to create a print font stack and submit your ideas.

Other CSS font family resources

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