Complete Guide to Pre-Installed Fonts in Linux, Mac, and Windows @ A Padded Cell

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

My latest article at a padded cell is a complete listing of pre-installed fonts on OSX, Ubuntu, and Windows (Ubuntu being used as a sample Linux operating system, and the most widely used). MS Office fonts are also included.

This is an exhaustive resource with samples of what the fonts look like in an actual browser (Firefox was used to take the samples). Foreign language fonts are also listed (although I think this section is somewhat incomplete).

This list took quite a lot of time and research to create so I hope you find it useful! If you do, please do pass it around Smiling

http://www.apaddedcell.com/web-fonts

Comments closed: getting too much spam. Please contact me by PM or through the site contact form if you have any additional comments or feedback on this article.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Just as a follow-up, the implications of this is that you don't have to stick to the small set of "core web fonts". You can actually specify quite a larger list of fonts as long as you're okay with your site looking a little different on different operating systems. As you can see, many fonts have equivalents available across the three operating systems. You can also choose fonts that have a similar look but aren't near equivalents. Your font-family specification would be quite long, but there's nothing wrong with that. Simply list the fonts in order of your preference, making sure that you include at least one choice from the three operating systems.

When web fonts become available you could use this list as a back-up, so users who don't have web fonts available can still see something similar to what you intended.

Also, please let me know if you find any problems with this list. I did the best I could, but, as you can imagine, with this much information it's certainly possible to miss something.

He has: 629 posts

Joined: May 2007

Thank you so much for this, Megan.

I had previously relied on the samples of Windows xp fonts and Mac OSX fonts at the Web Page Design for Designers site. It's nice to have these updated and all in the same place.

You mention that you can download the new Vista fonts for Windows xp. A quick google came up with this information on how to get and install them for free.

Cordially, David
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delete from internet where user_agent="MSIE" and version < 8;

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

The vista fonts should be installed with an upgrade to XP. I'm not sure which one - it might be the one with IE 7 (or maybe I'm wrong and it was an Office upgrade instead - I can't find any verification on that though). That option would be useful if you didn't install the upgrades for whatever reason...

I'm glad you found this useful!

Update: I'm trying to find a record of the cleartype font pack being included as an upgrade in XP but I can't find anything. I know I did have them on my computer at my old job and I thought they came with the IE 7 upgrade. We didn't have thte Office '07 upgrade at that time so it wasn't from that.

He has: 629 posts

Joined: May 2007

I think that the new fonts come with Office, as I have Windows XP and none of these fonts, while at work we have XP with Office installed, and they do have the new fonts.

FWIW - I tried out Corbel, and find that the numerals are smaller than the surrounding text. Odd.

Cordially, David
--
delete from internet where user_agent="MSIE" and version < 8;

He has: 629 posts

Joined: May 2007

There seems to be a problem displaying the font images in IE 6 today. None of the sample font images are loading. Okay in Firefox and Opera, though.

Windows XP Pro SP2, IE 6. Tried on several different machines.

Cordially, David
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delete from internet where user_agent="MSIE" and version < 8;

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Sep 2008

A very basic question - sorry if this is old hat - new here - I can't get italics with Hiragino Maru Gothic Pro on my Mac (Leopard). Is this just something I have to live with, or tweakable? Thanks for readin'.

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

I think some font families don't come with the italic or bold variants. That could be the case with this one.

At one point I considered including that information in the chart but I thought it was complicated enough as it was. Check the reference links at the bottom - they might be helpful.

They have: 1 posts

Joined: Jun 2009

Nice article, I have Windows XP and none of these fonts are there on my software. I am literally tired of using old fonts they really seem so boring. Less options too.

{Mod edit: Please use signature for personal links, cheers (and welcome to TWF Smiling)}

He has: 629 posts

Joined: May 2007

Kamil - Better times are a'coming. Check out Typekit.

Smiling

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Yes, this article will soon be somewhat obsolete, when @font-face becomes fully supported. A few more links on the topic:

http://webtypography.net/talks/skillswap09/ (download the PDF with notes; also has some good directions on how to use font stacks that can be combined with the font lists shown in my article)
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/realfontsontheweb/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/cssatten/
http://webfonts.info/
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/
http://www.fontembedding.com/

I might post more soon - having a bit of an @font-face afternoon Smiling

kamil - what did you mean by "none of these fonts are there on my software"? Did I get the Windows XP list wrong? I know I checked several different XP machines before I posted that article.

He has: 629 posts

Joined: May 2007

Your article is far from obsolete just yet. I refer to it quite often. Sadly, the example images seem to have got lost in cyber-space...

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