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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 14 August 2010
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
Comic Sans MS 99.13% 99.13% Text Image
MV Boli 96.07% 96.07% Text
Monotype Corsiva 82.94% 82.94% Text Image
Bradley Hand ITC 64.86% 64.86% Text Image
Tempus Sans ITC 64.32% 64.32% Text Image
French Script MT 64.28% 64.28% Text Image
Mistral 63.35% 63.35% Text Image
Kristen ITC 63.26% 63.26% Text Image
Maiandra GD 61.95% 61.95% Text Image
Edwardian Script ITC 61.80% 61.80% Text Image
Blackadder ITC 61.17% 61.17% Text Image
Vivaldi 60.20% 60.20% Text Image
Pristina 59.67% 59.67% Text
Freestyle Script 58.07% 58.07% Text
Lucida Handwriting 57.15% 57.15% Text Image
Script MT Bold 54.44% 54.44% Text
Palace Script MT 53.56% 53.56% Text
Rage Italic 53.08% 53.08% Text
Lucida Calligraphy 52.88% 52.88% Text
Forte 52.74% 52.74% Text
Gigi 52.54% 52.54% Text
Viner Hand ITC 52.54% 52.54% Text
Brush Script MT 51.91% 51.91% Text Image
Vladimir Script 51.53% 51.53% Text
Informal Roman 51.48% 51.48% Text
Kunstler Script 51.43% 51.43% Text
Mongolian Baiti 46.19% 46.19% Text
Segoe Print 46.19% 46.19% Text
Segoe Script 46.19% 46.19% Text
Gungsuh 38.00% 38.00% Text
GungsuhChe 38.00% 38.00% Text
Staccato222 BT 13.33% 13.33% Text
Calligraph421 BT 9.16% 9.16% Text
ParkAvenue BT 9.11% 9.11% Text
Cataneo BT 8.73% 8.73% Text
Ruach LET 7.95% 7.95% Text
Rage Italic LET 7.80% 7.80% Text
La Bamba LET 7.76% 7.76% Text
John Handy LET 7.66% 7.66% Text
Jenkins v2.0 7.22% 7.22% Text
One Stroke Script LET 7.17% 7.17% Text
Tiranti Solid LET 7.13% 7.13% Text
GlooGun 7.08% 7.08% Text
Smudger LET 7.08% 7.08% Text
Fat 7.03% 7.03% Text
Pepita MT 2.96% 2.96% Text
Andy 2.91% 2.91% Text
DomBold BT 2.47% 2.47% Text
Bickley Script 2.38% 2.38% Text
Fine Hand 2.13% 2.13% Text
A Charming Font 1.75% 1.75% Text
Mercurius Script MT Bold 1.60% 1.60% Text
Apple Chancery 1.45% 1.45% Text
BudHand 1.07% 1.07% Text
Mead Bold 0.92% 0.92% Text
Champignon 0.87% 0.87% Text
DecoType Naskh 0.87% 0.87% Text
Textile 0.10% 0.10% Text

Font stack builder: Start a cursive font stack

Most common cursive fonts on Mac systems to 14 August 2010
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
Comic Sans MS 91.29% 91.29% Text Image
Apple Chancery 91.03% 91.03% Text Image
Zapfino 88.92% 88.92% Text Image
Brush Script MT 86.81% 86.81% Text Image
Casual 50.56% 50.56% Text
Lucida Handwriting 32.98% 32.98% Text Image
Monotype Corsiva 26.91% 26.91% Text
Textile 11.87% 11.87% Text Image
Sand 11.08% 11.08% Text Image
Adobe Garamond 6.11% 6.11% Text
Caflisch Script Pro 3.89% 3.89% Text
Apple Casual 2.78% 2.78% Text
Kaufmann 2.22% 2.22% Text
Porcelain 2.22% 2.22% Text
Shelley 2.22% 2.22% Text
Zapf Chancery 1.06% 1.06% Text Image

Font stack builder: Start a cursive font stack

Most common cursive fonts on Unix systems to 14 August 2010
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
URW Chancery L 97.57% 97.57% Text Image
Comic Sans MS 63.53% 63.53% Text
Domestic Manners 23.48% 23.48% 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

Web font survey and sampler

Contribute to the survey and discover the new Web safe fonts.

Web font foundations

Font jargon: CSS font family glossary

Find fonts: Anchor Points: Font foundries & sources

Get the sampler font code: Sampler.css

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