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How sure can you be that the font you specify will be present on the end user's machine? This is the latest snapshot of the Code Style Mac font survey and should give you greater confidence in selecting a font.

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The most common Mac fonts

The most common font for Mac systems is the classic sans serif font Helvetica at 99% frequency. This is followed by the monospace font Monaco, typewriter style Courier. Sans serif fonts Lucida Grande and Geneva complete the 5 most common Mac fonts at 97% frequency.

The new Web safe fonts

Sans serif fonts Helvetica Neue, Gill Sans and Futura are reported with greater frequency on Mac systems than Microsoft Web safe fonts Impact and Courier New.

Most common fonts on Mac systems to 7 November 2009
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
Helvetica 99.16% 99.16% Sample Image
Monaco 98.61% 98.61% Sample Image
Courier 98.05% 98.05% Sample Image
Geneva 97.21% 97.21% Sample Image
Lucida Grande 97.21% 97.21% Sample Image
Arial 96.38% 96.38% Sample Image
Verdana 95.26% 95.26% Sample Image
Helvetica Neue 94.43% 94.43% Sample Image
Times 94.43% 94.43% Sample Image
Arial Black 93.04% 93.04% Sample Image
Georgia 93.04% 93.04% Sample Image
Trebuchet MS 93.04% 93.04% Sample Image
Times New Roman 91.64% 91.64% Sample Image
Gill Sans 91.33% 91.33% Sample Image
Comic Sans MS 89.97% 89.97% Sample Image
Futura 89.97% 89.97% Sample Image
Courier New 89.69% 89.69% Sample Image
Impact 89.42% 89.42% Sample Image
Optima 89.42% 89.42% Sample Image
Apple Chancery 89.14% 89.14% Sample Image
Arial Rounded MT Bold 89.14% 89.14% Sample Image
Skia 89.14% 89.14% Sample Image
Arial Narrow 88.58% 88.58% Sample Image
Andale Mono 88.30% 88.30% Sample Image
Baskerville 88.24% 88.24% Sample Image
American Typewriter 88.20% 88.20% Sample Image
Copperplate 88.02% 88.02% Sample Image
Hoefler Text 87.74% 87.74% Sample Image
Didot 87.31% 87.31% Sample Image
Papyrus 87.28% 87.28% Sample Image
Zapfino 87.00% 87.00% Sample Image
Marker Felt 86.69% 86.69% Sample Image
Brush Script MT 86.35% 86.35% Sample Image
Big Caslon 84.45% 84.45% Sample Image
Herculanum 83.39% 83.39% Sample Image
Palatino 79.67% 79.67% Sample Image
Tahoma 74.93% 74.93% Sample Image
Lucida Bright 62.54% 62.54% Sample  
Lucida Sans 62.54% 62.54% Sample  
Lucida Sans Typewriter 62.54% 62.54% Sample  

These are only the top forty fonts, see the full Mac font survey results (about 100 KB) for a complete listing.

CSS font family resources

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