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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 Windows font survey and should give you greater confidence in selecting a font.

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The most common Windows fonts

The most common reported font on the Windows platform is the system font Microsoft Sans Serif, reported in practically 100% of submissions. Mathew Carter's sans serif Verdana is in second position, followed by the heavy sans serif font Arial Black and regular sans serif Arial. The classic typewriter font Courier New and serif font Palatino Linotype are in joint fifth place amongst the most common Windows fonts at 98% frequency.

Font survey statistics

These figures are the cumulative total of about 11 Windows survey submissions per week since June 2005, 2381 total. The Windows applet-based survey was introduced on 21 April 2007 and is currently recording the frequency of 281 of the most common Windows fonts.

Most common fonts on Windows systems to 6 June 2009
Font name Installed (%) Sample Image
Microsoft Sans Serif 99.62% 99.62% Sample Image
Verdana 98.28% 98.28% Sample Image
Arial Black 98.07% 98.07% Sample Image
Arial 97.98% 97.98% Sample Image
Courier New 97.82% 97.82% Sample Image
Palatino Linotype 97.82% 97.82% Sample Image
Tahoma 97.82% 97.82% Sample Image
Franklin Gothic Medium 97.68% 97.68% Sample Image
Lucida Console 97.65% 97.65% Sample Image
Impact 97.56% 97.56% Sample Image
Comic Sans MS 97.48% 97.48% Sample Image
Trebuchet MS 97.44% 97.44% Sample Image
Lucida Sans Unicode 96.14% 96.14% Sample Image
Georgia 95.88% 95.88% Sample Image
Sylfaen 95.49% 95.49% Sample Image
Times New Roman 92.82% 92.82% Sample Image
Arial Narrow 87.74% 87.74% Sample Image
Century Gothic 86.64% 86.64% Sample Image
Vrinda 85.40% 85.40% Sample Image
Kartika 85.28% 85.28% Sample Image
Book Antiqua 85.22% 85.22% Sample Image
Bookman Old Style 85.09% 85.09% Sample Image
Monotype Corsiva 82.55% 82.55% Sample Image
Garamond 82.49% 82.49% Sample Image
MS Reference Sans Serif 69.61% 69.61% Sample Image
Haettenschweiler 68.08% 68.08% Sample Image
Bradley Hand ITC 61.72% 61.72% Sample Image
Papyrus 61.59% 61.59% Sample Image
French Script MT 60.90% 60.90% Sample Image
Tempus Sans ITC 60.28% 60.28% Sample Image
Copperplate Gothic Light 60.03% 60.03% Sample Image
Perpetua 59.65% 59.65% Sample Image
Franklin Gothic Book 59.46% 59.46% Sample Image
Curlz MT 59.21% 59.21% Sample Image
Edwardian Script ITC 59.21% 59.21% Sample Image
Franklin Gothic Medium Cond 59.15% 59.15% Sample Image
Felix Titling 58.96% 58.96% Sample Image
Maiandra GD 58.90% 58.90% Sample Image
Engravers MT 58.77% 58.77% Sample Image
Franklin Gothic Demi 58.77% 58.77% Sample Image

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

CSS font family resources

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