Metanet Forums

http://therealn.com/font_survey/

It occurred to me that I have no idea what fonts I'm actually allowed to use as a web designer. Fonts are a powerful tool in making a webpage look interesting, but the user has to have said fonts installed to see them, or else they get some default font you didn't intend.

So first, open the web page above and see if you see anything at all. It seems pretty stable, at least on Windows, but you never know what to expect with Javascript. If you get a list of your installed fonts and missing fonts, then excellent. Enjoy. You may have just learned something. Once you're done basking in your newfound knowledge, submit your results and see the current standings overall.


(The ideas behind the font testing Javascript come from Lalit.)

(Fixed BBCode fail. -Tsukatu)

I'm sad that I don't have Futura.

That was pretty interesting.

/gets missing fonts.

Why doesn't my browser have Palatino installed?!? WHY?!?!?!?!?!

George wrote:Why doesn't my browser have Palatino installed?!? WHY?!?!?!?!?!

It looks like almost no one has plain Palatino, but everyone has Palatino Linotype. So you totally have it, as long as the designer gets the name right.

I don't have Times New Roman....?

Blackson wrote:I don't have Times New Roman....?

That seems to be a trend! If you look at the results, you'd see that very little have Times New Roman (I'm one that does! Yay!). A bit weird, seeing as Times New Roman is like the most common font ever.

If Times New Roman is your browser's default font (which seems to be the case with most Windows users, at least), then it's listed as not installed.

LittleViking wrote:

George wrote:Why doesn't my browser have Palatino installed?!? WHY?!?!?!?!?!

It looks like almost no one has plain Palatino, but everyone has Palatino Linotype. So you totally have it, as long as the designer gets the name right.

Heh, that's cool. It's the font I use for Live Messenger, so I was wondering why it didn't carry over to the rest of the computer.

I'm so pissed that I don't have Monotype Corsiva. That was the best font ever.

Calibri is my default font, yet it didn't turn up in the installed or not-installed lists...

UniverseZero wrote:Calibri is my default font, yet it didn't turn up in the installed or not-installed lists...

Mmm, I'm only testing a certain set of fonts, not getting all the fonts available on your computer. It just never occurred to me to test Calibri.

The survey results are strange. I find it hard to believe that 90% of users have Helvetica installed. And 'fantasy'?

You know what looks cool? Consolas - more so when it's italicized. Unfortunately it's Microsoft only, so *nix users (and that small dedicated group that uses SkyOS) are out.

maestro wrote:The survey results are strange. I find it hard to believe that 90% of users have Helvetica installed. And 'fantasy'?

fantasy is one of the generic font families, like sans-serif or monospace. They are "primarily decorative while still containing representations of characters." (W3) Most of the fonts on dafont, for example, are in this category. Opera, strangely, uses the same font for sans-serif as it uses for fantasy.

I agree with you about Helvetica, though.

LittleViking wrote:

maestro wrote:The survey results are strange. I find it hard to believe that 90% of users have Helvetica installed. And 'fantasy'?

fantasy is one of the generic font families, like sans-serif or monospace. They are "primarily decorative while still containing representations of characters." (W3) Most of the fonts on dafont, for example, are in this category. Opera, strangely, uses the same font for sans-serif as it uses for fantasy.

Firefox too, or at least that's how it displays for me.

This is pretty interesting, though the results for the first few are pretty much as I expected.

Also, no Times New Roman, or Calibri? Huh.

Weisslenny0 wrote:This is pretty interesting, though the results for the first few are pretty much as I expected.

Also, no Times New Roman, or Calibri? Huh.

Since most users (Windows users at least) have Times New Roman as their default font, and since the test lists your default font as not installed, 100% of people saw Times New Roman as not installed on their browser. Which of course is ridiculous, so I just removed it from the listing.

Calibri just didn't occur to me. The list is an amalgamation of "web safe font" and "common font" lists I found, and somehow Calibri wasn't on any of them.

Fonts not installed...
Andale Mono
Apple Chancery
Ayuthaya
Bank Gothic
Baskerville
Bookman Oldstyle
Charcoal
Cracked
Didot
Futura
Gadget
Garlique
Geneva
Geneva CY
Gentium
Gill Sans
Helvetica Neue
King
Lucida Grande
Marker Felt
Modena
Monaco
MS Serif
New York
Optima
Palatino
Sathu
TeX
Verona
Zapfchancery
Zapfino

And here I thought I had alot..

scythe33 wrote:You know what looks cool? Consolas - more so when it's italicized. Unfortunately it's Microsoft only, so *nix users (and that small dedicated group that uses SkyOS) are out.

What stops me moving it over partitions? :)

faemir wrote:

scythe33 wrote:You know what looks cool? Consolas - more so when it's italicized. Unfortunately it's Microsoft only, so *nix users (and that small dedicated group that uses SkyOS) are out.

What stops me moving it over partitions? :)

Your integrity, and because you don't hate the Baby Jesus?

faemir wrote:

scythe33 wrote:You know what looks cool? Consolas - more so when it's italicized. Unfortunately it's Microsoft only, so *nix users (and that small dedicated group that uses SkyOS) are out.

What stops me moving it over partitions? :)

I don't know, honestly, though I have about zero experience moving fonts across partitions. I'm guessing Microsoft would try and break that in some way, but perhaps not. Also, Consolas just about needs Microsoft ClearType to display properly.