WASD42 August 28, 2009 at 10:14

Fonts common to all (current) versions of Windows and their Mac equivalents

Transfer

Introduction

This list lists the fonts common to all currently relevant Windows operating systems (actually starting with Windows 98), and their equivalents on Mac OS. These fonts are sometimes referred to as browser safe fonts . This is a small reference that I use when I make Web pages and I think that it will be useful to you.

If you are new to web design, you might be thinking something like: “Why should I be limited to such a small set of fonts? I have a huge collection of beautiful fonts! ” The fact is that the visitor’s browser can display only those fonts that are installed in its operating system ( translator's note:At present, it is already possible to use virtually any font in the design of pages using CSS 3 and its new property @ font-face ; True, far not all browsers support this function yet), and this means that every visitor to your page should be the owner of the fonts you have chosen. Therefore, you should use only those fonts that are in each operating system. Fortunately, CSS has an @ font-family property that makes this task easier.

You may also be interested in the list of fonts included in each version of Windows .

List

@ Font-family value	Windows	Mac	Family
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif	Arial	Arial, Helvetica	sans-serif
"Arial Black", Gadget, sans-serif	Arial black	Arial Black, Gadget	sans-serif
"Comic Sans MS", cursive	Comic Sans MS	Comic Sans MS ⁵	cursive
"Courier New", Courier, monospace	Courier new	Courier New, Courier ⁶	monospace
Georgia, serif	Georgia ¹	Georgia	serif
Impact, Charcoal, sans-serif	Impact	Impact ⁵ , Charcoal ⁶	sans-serif
"Lucida Console", Monaco, monospace	Lucida console	Monaco ⁵	monospace
"Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Grande", sans-serif	Lucida Sans Unicode	Lucida grande	sans-serif
"Palatino Linotype", "Book Antiqua", Palatino, serif	Palatino Linotype, Book Antiqua ³	Palatino ⁶	serif
Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif	Tahoma	Geneva	sans-serif
"Times New Roman", Times, serif	Times new roman	Times	serif
"Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, sans-serif	Trebuchet MS ¹	Helvetica	sans-serif
Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif	Verdana	Verdana, Geneva	sans-serif
Symbol	Symbol ²	Symbol ²	-
Webdings	Webdings ²	Webdings ²	-
Wingdings, "Zapf Dingbats"	Wingdings ²	Zapf dingbats ²	-
"MS Sans Serif", Geneva, sans-serif	MS Sans Serif ⁴	Geneva	sans-serif
"MS Serif", "New York", serif	MS Serif ⁴	New york ⁶	serif

¹ Georgia and Trebuchet MS fonts come with Windows 2000 / XP and are included in the IE font pack (and indeed come with many Microsoft applications), so they are installed on many computers running Windows 98.

² Character fonts are displayed only in Internet Explorer , in other browsers they are usually replaced with a standard font (although, for example, the Symbol font is displayed in Opera, and Webdings is displayed in Safari).

³ Book Antiqua font is almost identical to Palatino Linotype; Palatino Linotype ships with Windows 2000 / XP, and Book Antiqua ships with Windows 98.

⁴Please note that these fonts are not TrueType, but bitmap, so they may look bad with some sizes (they are designed to be displayed in sizes of 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and 24 pt at 96 DPI).

⁵ These fonts work in Safari only in the standard style, but do not work when highlighted in bold or in italics. Comic Sans MS also works in bold, but not in italics. Other Mac browsers seem to normally emulate missing font properties themselves (thanks to Christian Fecteau for the tip).

⁶ These fonts install on Mac only with Classic installation