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This FAQ is part of the Code Style Help and FAQ section. Use the help request form below if your question is not answered here, but make sure you are asking the right question first.

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Finding fonts

Statistical bias

Survey details

Survey results data

Screen shots

Finding fonts

Q: Could you send me one of the fonts listed?

A: No, in most cases it is illegal to distribute copyright protected fonts and any request for fonts will not be answered.

Q: Where can I get the fonts in this survey?

A: The Anchor Points: Font foundries & sources page has links to the majority of the font foundries featured in the Code Style font sampler. The My Fonts site is a comprehensive guide and sales outlet for these fonts and many more.

Q: How can I find the font used in this logo?

A: Several font foundries provide basic browse and search tools on their Web sites to help identify fonts by name, see the Anchor Points: Fonts and foundries page. The foundries below provide visual interactive tools to find the font you're looking for.

Premium Content: Follow this link for subscription information More details available to subscribers:
How can I find the font used in this logo?

Q: Are the sampler fonts Postscript type?

A: The short answer to your question is no, the fonts the sampler are not necessarily Postscript fonts. This is a survey of fonts that are available to display in Web browser programs; it is not concerned with the storage format of the fonts, nor technically how they are rendered on screen. Many of the fonts will have Postscript versions, see Anchor Points: fonts and foundries for primary sources.

Statistical bias

Q: I sent my submission to the wrong survey!

A: Your submission to the Windows or Mac survey is not a problem, the separate pages are largely a hangover from an earlier survey format where this distinction was more significant. The font survey applet automatically detects your operating system and records submissions accordingly. We will also de-duplicate repeat submissions from both pages.

Q: What are the demographics of survey respondents?

A: One of the aims of the font survey is to make the survey process as simple as possible, to encourage the highest number of submissions possible. If we added optional demographic questions to the survey, we may not get very consistent or reliable data and may discourage a proportion of people from submitting. General site statistics show a strong developed country bias for north America and India.

Code Style visits by country, March to October 2007 -- click for a larger view

Q: Can't you show a total frequency for all platforms?

A: It would be misleading to suggest that a single font has a specific percentage frequency across all computer platforms because this implies a continuity between platforms that does not exist. When a person visits a Web site they will be using one Web browser on one computer platform. If they do not have a specific font installed, they will not change to a different computer to view the page. That is why you should specify a series of alternative fallback fonts in your CSS rules that may apply to any computer.

For example, the frequency of the Microsoft Impact font on Windows is higher than on Mac and much higher than on Linux machines. The overall number of font survey submissions for Windows is much higher than Mac and Linux respectively. If we were to calculate an average percentage that took account of the different number of submissions per platform, it would be misleading because it would suggest the frequency of the Impact font on Linux is much higher than it really is.

For CSS purposes it is much more useful to know the frequency of alternative fallback fonts per platform than across platforms.

Q: Your readers are sure to have more fancy fonts aren't they?

A: It is possible that Code Style readers might have installed a wider range of fonts than a "typical" Web user, but any such influence seems marginal. The average number of fonts reported per Windows survey submission fluctuates between 14 and 21 fonts out of 40, which does not strongly support such speculation.

Q: I wonder why the Windows Vista fonts don't show up in the results?

A: The Windows Vista fonts are gradually rising up the rankings, in October 2007 they are present at 30% frequency and below on the full Windows font survey results page.

Q: I can't believe that font is more common!

A: Some of the font survey results may challenge common expectations, but these results are based on a significant number of survey submissions. The open, voluntary nature of the surveys means that no single submission can be granted a high degree of credibility in its own right, and an unknown level of error must be accepted overall. On the other hand, there is no particular incentive for readers to complete these surveys and, if they have taken the trouble to do so, it is reasonable to accept submissions in good faith in most cases.

The aggregate font ranking most accurately reflects the relative frequency of fonts overall, but may have a degree of error that would affect the order of fonts with similar reported frequencies. The greater the difference between the percentages, the more reliable the comparison between any two fonts.

Q: Can it be true only 92% of Windows machines have Arial installed?

A: One might expect Arial to be present on more than 99% of Windows computers, but also bear in mind this font may be under-reported where users have set it as their browser's default.

The relatively low reported frequency of Arial and other very common fonts like Courier New and Tahoma may be a guide to the degree of error in the survey overall. Against an assumed actual of 99%, these figures suggest a degree of error of up to 8%. The overall ranking is therefore a more reliable guide to the selection of fonts than the reported frequency figures alone.

Survey details

Q: How do you check submissions are for the right platform?

A: The Code Style font survey includes an unseen check for the users' browser version and operating system. If anyone submits a survey for the wrong platform, it is disregarded.

Q: How do you check for repeat submissions?

A: Some contributors may inadvertently submit a font survey more than once, but the survey also records the session IP address (see the Code Style privacy statement for further information). If multiple submissions are received from the same address with the same browser details, only one is counted.

Q: When did this survey begin?

A: The Code Style font survey was first published on 7th May 2001 and has been receiving submissions ever since.

Q: Some Mac OS X fonts are missing from the survey!

A: If you look at the Mac font survey results page, you will see that a range of standard Mac OS X fonts have previously been included in the survey, including Baskerville, Big Caslon, Didot, Gill Sans and Helvetica Neue, but these were reported at relatively low frequency. To maintain a reasonable balance of usability and coverage, the number of surveyed fonts is limited to 40, but these fonts may be surveyed again at a later date.

Q: The lens link shows the wrong image!

A: The lens link on the Code Style font sampler does not display an image, it shows XHTML text with a specific CSS font-family declaration on the second text sample. If you do not have the specified font on your system, it will only show the default font for your Web browser.

Only the "Image" links on the show font images.

Q: The oblique sample is the same as italic!

A: The oblique sections of the sampler are pure CSS renditions of the base text against a standard grid background, they are not images. These samples rely on one's system having the named font installed, browser support for the CSS {font-style: oblique;} declaration and the font family having an oblique font set to render. If these conditions are not met, the browser may render the text in italic or possibly normal, "Roman" style.

Q: Why is Verdana listed twice?

A: Verdana is listed twice in the combined font survey results; once for Windows and once for Mac. This table compares the frequency of named fonts on different platforms, but the figures should not be regarded as continuous amongst the platforms. People view a Web page using one system or another, they can't fall back to a font that is not available on their platform. Web designs that use fonts that are available on multiple platforms, such as Verdana, stand a better chance of being displayed as intended on any particular computer, but the chances are different on Mac compared with Windows.

Screen shots

Q: How do I submit a Mac screen shot for the font survey?

A: Screen shots of less common Mac fonts are always welcome, especially the Mac OSX fonts, thank you. Please use a site feedback form to give advance notice that you will send an image and use zip compression if possible.

The screen shots for the Code Style font sampler are selected from the sampler page for the relevant font, just after the alphabet and numerals heading, to include the normal, bold and italic style text. Screen resolution should be set to 800 by 600 pixels resolution to maintain consistency with the other screen shots.

To take a screen shot, press Shift plus Apple plus the number 4 key. A cross-hair should appear on screen that you can drag out around the area to grab. When you let go, a new image called "Picture 1" (and 2, etc. in series) will be created at the root level of your hard disc in PICT format.

Survey results data

Q: Are the results available in other formats?

A: Yes, the results tables are included in the HTML page and you can access the tables directly provided you give a link and credit to the Code Style site:

These are also available as a set of XML files here:

The XML is a custom format that should be easy to process and transform, the DTD is FontStats.dtd.

Screen shots

Q: How do I submit a Unix screen shot for the font survey?

A: Screen shots of Unix family fonts are always welcome, thank you. Please use the help request form below to give advance notice that you will send an image and use zip compression if possible.

The screen shots for the Code Style font sampler are selected from the sampler page for the relevant font, just after the alphabet and numerals heading, to include the normal, bold and italic style text. Screen resolution should be set to 800 by 600 pixels resolution to maintain consistency with the other screen shots.

Many Unix and Linux users will have GIMP installed and you can take a screen shot by selecting Acquire > Screenshot from the File menu.

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