A much smaller list of fonts common to all computers, can be found here.
Note: If any of these fonts are not on your computer, you will be viewing “Courier New” font instead.
If you were to do an Internet search for different font types, you would literally find dozens of font categories but some of those categories could easily be combined into just one. For example, rather than listing separate categories for “Old Style Serif”, “Slab Serif”, “Transitional Serif”, etc. we grouped all of these into the “Serif Font” category.
By doing this, we grouped all fonts into six categories:
- Blackletter Fonts
- Serif Fonts
- Sans Serif Fonts
- Script Fonts
- Decorative Fonts
- Monospaced Fonts
BLACKLETTER FONTS
Blackletter686 BT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Lucida Blackletter
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Old English TextMT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
SERIF FONTS
Baskerville Old Face
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Bell MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Bernard MT Condensed
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
BernhardMod BT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Bitstream Vera Serif
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Book Antiqua
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Bookman Old Style
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Californian FB
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Calisto MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Elephant
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Garamond Antiqua
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Georgia
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
High Tower Text
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
LcdD
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Onyx
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Onyx BT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Palatino Linotype
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Perpetua Titling MT STD
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Rockwell
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Times New Roman
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Xerox Serif
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
SANS SERIF FONTS
Agency FB
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Arial
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Arial Rounded MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Berlin Sans FB
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Bitstream Vera Sans
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Century Gothic
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Eurostile
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Haettenschweiler
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Hippo
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Impact
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
MS Sans Serif
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
News Gothic MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Placard Condensed
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
QuickType
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Tahoma
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Trebuchet MS
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Tw Cen MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Verdana
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Xerox Sans Serif Narrow
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
SCRIPT FONTS
Artista
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Blackadder ITC TT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Bradley Hand ITC
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Comic Sans MS
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Edwardian Script ITC
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Freestyle Script
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
French Script MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Informal Roman
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Kristen ITC
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Kunstler Script
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Lucida Calligra
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Maiandra GD
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Matisse ITC
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Matura MT Script Capitals
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Mead
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Mercurius Script MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Mistral
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Monotype Corsiva
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Palace Script MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Papyrus
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Parchment
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Pristina
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Rage
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Ribbon131 Bd BT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Script
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Tempus Sans ITC
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Viner Hand ITC
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Vivaldi
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Vladimir Script
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
DECORATIVE FONTS
Algerian
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Beesknees ITC
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Braggadocio
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Broadway
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Castellar
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Chiller
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Colonna MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Cooper Black
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Desdemona
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Flexure
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Forte
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Gigi
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Gradl
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Harlow Solid
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Harrington
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Juice
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Kino MT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Niagara Engraved
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Niagara Solid
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
OCR A
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Playbill
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Ransom
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Ravie
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Showcard Gothic
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Snap ITC
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Stencil BT
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Terminal
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Transam
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Westminster
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Wide Latin
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
MONOSPACED FONTS
Andale Mono
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Consolas
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Courier New
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
MS Gothic
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
MS Mincho
1234567890!@#$%^&*()
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Blackletter Fonts were popular many centuries ago and in fact, the Gutenberg Bible was printed using this font in the 1450’s. Since it has been a long time since these fonts were commonplace, people today are not used to reading text in this style. Also, blackletter fonts are very complex and intricate which increases the difficulty in their readability. It’s no surprise that traffic signs are not printed in this font.
Blackletter fonts are not recommended for any lengthy sections of text, and so you would never see these being used in an encyclopedia, newspaper articles, magazine articles and especially not for a website. You could use these fonts as a header in a website article but remember to use these sparingly.
So, what is the pupose of using blackletter fonts? Their style is extravagant and elegant, giving them a formal and dignified manner which practically ensures that these will be used for printing special documents such as diplomas, wedding invitations, etc.
Serif Fonts have small extensions at the tips of some letters.
(Note the red highlights in the graphic below.)
As a general rule, serif fonts look better when printed rather than being displayed on a web page but that hasn’t stopped some website owners from using them, particularly Georgia font.
There’s an interesting use for serif fonts if your site has a “printer-friendly” section. That is to say, if you have pages which people might want to print, you could put those same pages in another section but set them up with a “Times New Roman” font and people could print from that page.
Sans Serif Fonts (unlike serif fonts) have no extensions.
The general rule for websites is that sans serif fonts are the best font family to use for web pages.
Online, they are the most easily readable fonts and they are the ones to use if you are displaying large portions of text.
And we’re not just saying that. We use Arial font as the principal typeface for all pages at www.1728.com.
Script Fonts are fonts that resemble handwriting.
For simplicity sake, we have combined the Brush Script, Calligraphic and Cursive fonts into this category.
Generally speaking, these fonts look much better when printed.
They are quite fancy and formal and look very impressive on invitations and greeting cards.
Still, online they can be useful as a header for a long block of text.
(See the graphic on the left.)
A script font header followed by sans serif text can break up the monotony of an entire web page that is set up totally of just one font type.
Decorative Fonts like the script fonts are not designed to be used for large blocks of text. You wouldn’t expect a book to be published entirely in Braggadocio font would you?
Use decorative fonts in the same manner as you would with script fonts.
Incidentally, in the six groups of fonts that are listed above, we have included the display and fantasy fonts in the decorative font category.
Monospaced Fonts have precisely the same amount of horizontal space for each letter, unlike all the other fonts listed above, which are called proportional fonts. With proportional fonts, the letter ‘w’ takes up much more horizontal space than the letter ‘i’.
By looking at the monospaced font group, you may notice that they are very plain-looking but monospaced fonts are handy to use if you need to “line up” data.
For example, here is five days of weather displayed with Arial font:
Sat Oct 01 Fair
Sun Oct 02 Sunny
Mon Oct 03 Fair
Tue Oct 04 Rain
Wed Oct 05 Cloudy
Here is the same weather report using Courier New font:
Sat Oct 01 Fair
Sun Oct 02 Sunny
Mon Oct 03 Fair
Tue Oct 04 Rain
Wed Oct 05 Cloudy
Do you notice how much more neatly and precisely all the letters and numbers line up?
So, this is the font to use if you need to display data in neat columns.
Actually, there are other ways to line up data neatly but this provides the quickest solution.