Your banner ad here

Better font stacks

Font survey results

Font questions?

Find a font?

Fonts & foundry links

Get noticed

Place your text ad here.

WestNIC provides reliable web hosting services

Free software downloads and drivers download resources

25% off cpanel web hosting and reseller hosting deals. Promo: codestyle25off

Site navigation below

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: sans-serif

Sans serif fonts have a very regular, often geometrical shape with no serifs on the end of the letter strokes. Sans serif font faces are generally considered to have a simple, clean, modern font style that is reliable for the Web. Use the CSS font family name sans-serif.

The most common sans serif fonts

Key sans serif fonts common to all systems include Microsoft Arial, Arial Black, Trebuchet MS and Verdana, although their frequency on Unix family systems is quite low.

Helvetica is very common on Mac and Unix systems but not on Windows, where Arial is the closest equivalent. Avant Garde for Mac and Avantgarde for Unix are variants of the same font, not usually present on Windows. In this case, the closest match would be Century Gothic.

Lucida Grande for Mac, Lucida Sans Unicode for Windows and Lucida for Unix family systems are quite similar, though not particularly common.

Most common sans serif fonts on Windows systems to 20 June 2009
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
Microsoft Sans Serif 99.62% 99.62% Text Image
Verdana 98.28% 98.28% Text Image
Arial Black 98.07% 98.07% Text Image
Arial 97.98% 97.98% Text Image
Tahoma 97.82% 97.82% Text Image
Franklin Gothic Medium 97.68% 97.68% Text Image
Trebuchet MS 97.44% 97.44% Text Image
Lucida Sans Unicode 96.14% 96.14% Text Image
Arial Narrow 87.74% 87.74% Text Image
Century Gothic 86.64% 86.64% Text Image
Vrinda 85.40% 85.40% Text Image
Kartika 85.28% 85.28% Text Image
MS Reference Sans Serif 69.61% 69.61% Text Image
Franklin Gothic Book 59.46% 59.46% Text Image
Franklin Gothic Medium Cond 59.15% 59.15% Text Image
Franklin Gothic Demi 58.77% 58.77% Text Image
Eras Demi ITC 58.71% 58.71% Text Image
Eras Light ITC 58.65% 58.65% Text Image
Franklin Gothic Demi Cond 57.14% 57.14% Text Image
Franklin Gothic Heavy 57.08% 57.08% Text Image
Arial Unicode MS 56.66% 56.66% Text Image
Gill Sans Ultra Bold 51.50% 51.50% Text
Arial Rounded MT Bold 51.28% 51.28% Text Image
Gill Sans MT 51.07% 51.07% Text
Gill Sans MT Condensed 50.75% 50.75% Text
Eras Medium ITC 50.13% 50.13% Text
Calibri 50.12% 50.12% Text Image
Gill Sans MT Ext Condensed Bold 50.06% 50.06% Text
Eras Bold ITC 49.94% 49.94% Text
Gill Sans Ultra Bold Condensed 49.94% 49.94% Text
Tw Cen MT 49.62% 49.62% Text
Tw Cen MT Condensed 49.62% 49.62% Text
Candara 49.59% 49.59% Text Image
Corbel 49.59% 49.59% Text Image
Tw Cen MT Condensed Extra Bold 49.37% 49.37% Text
Berlin Sans FB 45.86% 45.86% Text
Berlin Sans FB Demi 45.11% 45.11% Text
Segoe UI 40.39% 40.39% Text Image
Lucida Sans 28.22% 28.22% Text Image
Bitstream Vera Sans 22.99% 22.99% Text
Eurostile 21.30% 21.30% Text
Abadi MT Condensed Light 9.95% 9.95% Text Image
Helvetica 7.64% 7.64% Text
Univers 6.77% 6.77% Text
Kabel Ult BT 6.24% 6.24% Text
Verdana Ref 6.17% 6.17% Text
Helvetica Narrow 5.26% 5.26% Text
Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold 4.14% 4.14% Text
News Gothic MT 3.95% 3.95% Text Image
Abadi MT Condensed 3.31% 3.31% Text
Optima 3.01% 3.01% Text
Gill Sans 2.51% 2.51% Text
Chicago 2.13% 2.13% Text
Geneva 2.13% 2.13% Text
Futura 1.38% 1.38% Text
Helvetica Neue 1.38% 1.38% Text
FIRSTHOME 0.89% 0.89% Text
04b_21 0.57% 0.57% Text
Gadget 0.13% 0.13% Text
Most common sans serif fonts on Mac systems to 20 June 2009
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
Helvetica 96.81% 96.81% Text Image
Arial 96.61% 96.61% Text Image
Verdana 95.22% 95.22% Text Image
Arial Black 94.82% 94.82% Text Image
Geneva 94.02% 94.02% Text Image
Lucida Grande 93.82% 93.82% Text Image
Helvetica Neue 93.77% 93.77% Text Image
Trebuchet MS 93.43% 93.43% Text Image
Gill Sans 91.44% 91.44% Text Image
Futura 91.04% 91.04% Text Image
Skia 90.24% 90.24% Text Image
Arial Narrow 90.04% 90.04% Text Image
Arial Rounded MT Bold 88.84% 88.84% Text Image
Optima 88.65% 88.65% Text Image
Tahoma 74.50% 74.50% Text
Lucida Sans 51.61% 51.61% Text
Charcoal 40.04% 40.04% Text Image
Chicago 38.65% 38.65% Text Image
Century Gothic 38.25% 38.25% Text
Gadget 36.65% 36.65% Text Image
Bitstream Vera Sans 17.51% 17.51% Text
News Gothic MT 13.82% 13.82% Text
Techno 13.82% 13.82% Text Image
Abadi MT Condensed Light 13.36% 13.36% Text
Univers 13.28% 13.28% Text
Corbel 8.76% 8.76% Text
Calibri 7.83% 7.83% Text
Candara 7.37% 7.37% Text
Avant Garde 2.76% 2.76% Text
Helvetica Narrow 0.46% 0.46% Text
Most common sans serif fonts on Unix systems to 20 June 2009
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
URW Gothic L 94.59% 94.59% Text Image
Nimbus Sans L 89.93% 89.93% Text
DejaVu Sans 87.25% 87.25% Text
Bitstream Vera Sans 82.91% 82.91% Text Image
Lucida Sans 80.00% 80.00% Text
DejaVu Sans Condensed 79.14% 79.14% Text
Arial 66.95% 66.95% Text Image
FreeSans 66.44% 66.44% Text
Liberation Sans 66.19% 66.19% Text
Arial Black 58.40% 58.40% Text
Verdana 58.40% 58.40% Text
Trebuchet MS 56.13% 56.13% Text
Helvetica 46.72% 46.72% Text Image
MgOpen Modata 42.45% 42.45% Text
MgOpen Cosmetica 41.73% 41.73% Text
MgOpen Moderna 41.73% 41.73% Text
Luxi Sans 33.19% 33.19% Text Image
Lucida 23.36% 23.36% Text Image
Nimbus Sans L Condensed 20.86% 20.86% Text
DejaVu Sans Extra Light 20.14% 20.14% Text
Vera Sans 7.91% 7.91% Text

Web font classification

Other CSS font family resources

Article feedback

Your comments on this article will be appreciated, please use the form below to submit your views. If you would like a reply or article update notification, include your email address.

Information: Your email address will not be mis-used. If you include your address you may be sent a personal reply, you will not be added to any mailing list unless you request update notification. Read the site privacy statement for details.

Add this page to your chosen social bookmarking service

Style warning - please read

Home · CSS · Java · Javascript · HTML · Help · Log