When you’re fairly new to the world of web design, it can actually be quite tricky to choose which fonts to use. But once you understand what “web-safe fonts” really are, everything suddenly becomes clear. Secure web fonts are basically the most popular fonts used by web designers to make the content on their websites attractive to visitors. They are also the most commonly available fonts on computers around the world.
If you download a really cool but rare font from your favorite free website and decide to use it for all of your top titles, for example, you should be aware that sadly, not everyone will be able to see your masterpiece the way you created it.
In other words, if the people visiting your website don’t have the fonts you used to design it on their computers, they won’t be able to see those particular fonts on their screens. Instead, your browsers will replace them with some other fonts that are already installed on your computers.
That is why it is highly recommended that you stick to the most popular sources so that your website can be seen exactly as it is by almost everyone.
There are many web-safe fonts that you can use to create your websites, all you need is a little creativity to make them look more attractive and use them to your advantage. There are basically two types of sources that you should know about:
* Serif fonts
* Sans Serif Fonts (Sans means French without)
Serif fonts are fonts that have thin cross lines at the end of letters, and Sans Serif fonts are fonts that have nothing at the end of letters. The most common Serif font is Times New Roman, which is also coincidentally the default font for most Windows-based browsers.
There are also monospaced fonts which are basically fonts that have the same amount of space between each letter. Here’s a list of the 23 most used fonts – I personally use Georgia, Times New Roman, Tahoma for texts, and Impact for Headings, which I think look great on a web page:
Most common Serif fonts:
- Old style bookman
- Cambria
- Constantia
- Garamond
- Georgia
- Palatine Linotype
- Times New Roman
Most common sans serif fonts:
- Arial
- Arial Black
- Calibri
- Candara
- Gothic century
- Bracket
- Helvetica
- Impact
- MS Sans Serif
- Tahoma
- Trebuchet MS
- Verdana
Most common monospaced fonts:
- Consoles
- Courier New
- delivery courier
Final thoughts:
To make your life easier, I recommend that you stick to the most common fonts listed above for body text on your websites. This will ensure that everyone who visits your website can see it exactly the way you want it to look.
However, you can use whatever font you choose for your logos, navigation, and other website design elements as long as you use them as part of an image. For example, a clickable logo or banner designed in Photoshop or PaintNet that you then embed on your web page. Well, I really hope this helped you understand what web-safe fonts are and how to use them.
Sincerely