Is there any standard that has a list of web-safe fonts

Question

Is there any standard that has a list of web-safe fonts?

I expected W3C to have one, but I couldn't find. I found it more to be just a terminology instead of any standard. Am I right?

Answer 1

There aren't really any "web-safe" fonts.

Standards do not require of browsers to always support specific fonts. It all comes down to what is installed in a specific OS. If a browser finds the specified font, it takes it. If not, it looks for a substitute.

The smartest option is to specify a list of fonts like this:

font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Sans-Serif;

If you are able to, check how your page looks with all of those in different OSes. That's the best performance you could give. Otherwise, develop your pages to be robust to some font size variations, that's always the best bet.

Answer 2

W3C doesn't have a standard list simply because they aren't the ones who determine what fonts are installed on what computers.

Some of the most common fonts installed on most computers today include Arial, Verdana, Georgia and Times New Roman. There's no standard here, it just so happens that these fonts are included in most OS installations.

Answer 3

There is a really good list of common Mac and PC fonts at http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html, which is helpful when setting fonts, for example:

font-family: Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;

With Lucida Sans Unicode being the PC font, Lucida Grande the Mac equivalent and sans-serif the font family.

Answer 4

Font stacks are one way, the other way is to just use the ones that are common across Windows/Macinitosh/Linux - http://www.apaddedcell.com/web-fonts/.

Answer 5

You can't guarantee all computers will have the exact font you specify, so relax and let it go. The W3C spec defined generic font-familes: serif, sans-serif, monospace, cursive and fantasy. Use these and let the client's browser make the most appropriate choice.