CSS Fonts

Font Selection is Important

Choosing the right font has a huge impact on how the readers experience a website.

The right font can create a strong identity for your brand.

Choosing a font that is easy to read is important. It is also important to choose a good color and size for your font.

The CSS font-family Property

The CSS font-family property specifies the font for an element.

Tip: The font-family property should hold several font names as a "fallback" system. If the browser does not support the first font, it tries the next font. The font names should be separated with a comma.

Always start with the font you want, and always end with a generic family, to let the browser pick a similar font in the generic family, if no other fonts are available.

Note: If the font name is more than one word, it must be in quotation marks, like: "Times New Roman".

Tip: Read more about fallback fonts in CSS Web Safe Fonts.

Example

.p1 {
  font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
}

  .p2 {
  font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}

  .p3 {
  font-family: "Lucida Console", "Courier New", monospace;
}

CSS Generic Font Families

In CSS, there are five generic font families:

• Serif fonts - have a small stroke at the edges of each letter. They create a sense of formality and elegance.

• Sans-serif fonts - have clean lines (no small strokes attached). They create a modern and minimalistic look.

• Monospace fonts - here all the letters have the same fixed width. They create a mechanical look.

• Cursive fonts - imitate human handwriting.

• Fantasy fonts - are decorative/playful fonts.

All the different font names belong to one of the generic font families.

Difference Between Serif and Sans-serif Fonts

<img alt="Serif vs. Sans-serif" src="serif.gif" width="398" height="142" style="max-width:100%;height:auto">

Note: On computer screens, sans-serif fonts are considered easier to read than serif fonts.

Some Font Examples