Website Design Articles :: FAQS for new website owners

What fonts can I use for my website?

An important consideration when designing a website is choosing which fonts to use for the main body text. In order for the chosen font to display correctly when someone visits your site, that font must be installed on the user's computer.

The safest choices are therefore one of a limited number of core fonts which are installed on nearly every computer. These fonts are:

ARIAL: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

ARIAL BLACK: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

COMIC SANS MS: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

COURIER NEW: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

GEORGIA: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

IMPACT: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

TIMES NEW ROMAN: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

TREBUCHET MS: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

VERDANA: the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog

All of these fonts are best viewed at small to medium sizes and as you will see, some are more readable than others. Probably Arial and Verdana are the most widely used for their clarity and readability.

If larger type is needed for example in a logo, heading, strap line or slogan then the text is usually created as an image which allows much greater flexibility and an almost unlimited range of fonts to be used as you are no longer limited by what is installed on the user's computer.

You will often see navigation created in this way, however care must be taken to ensure that the images meet accessibility guidelines for partially sighted viewers by having their content explained by way of ALT tags which can be read by a screen reader.

See this page for a selection of sites that offer free fonts you can download.