Copyright © 2022 by Mitchell R Grunes
Easy to Read Fonts For Browser Display and Print
I (Mitch Grunes) think the easiest & fastest to read fonts have
- Bold and normal weights. (I prefer bold for small print.)
- Uniform line thickness.
- Simple shapes, few serifs, resembling how you learned to print as a child.
- Reasonably compact, but not to the point of being hard to read.
- Distinguishable digit 0 and upper case O. That is true for most modern fonts.
- Distinguishable digit 1, lower case l, upper case I, and vertical bar |.
Proportional (mixed width) fonts look better, but fixed width lines up columns better.
Some fonts display the same on some browsers on some platforms.
Best proportional fonts when don't need to distinguish 1 & l
(Not good for for bibliographies, literature citations, computer code)
Arial & Helvetica look the same on most browsers:
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
Similar for bolded versions:
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
Calibri & bolded Calibri are compact, but lines are thin unbolded.
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
Trebuchet MS & Verdana are acceptable when 1 & l must look different, but Verdana is too wide
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
Similar for bolded versions:
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
Hard to read proportional fonts; some lines are very thin
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Cambria
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Cambria MS
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Lucida
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Sans Serif
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Times New Roman
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Cambria (Bold)
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Cambria MS (Bold)
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Lucida (Bold)
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Sans Serif (Bold)
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?& Times New Roman (Bold)
Easy to read fixed fonts
Consolas & bolded Consolas are clean & distinguishable.
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
Hard to read fixed fonts
Courier & Courier New have thin lines unbolded; seraphs slow reading
True Courier has indistinguishable 0,0 and 1,l, but Courier and Courier New look the same on most browsers.
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
Except for thin lines, bolded versions have same problems
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
0O 1lI| ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 .,:;"'"!?&
Good compromise HTML that works well on most browsers and printers:
(Omit Arial & Helvetica when you must tell l and I apart.
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,Cambria,Trebuchet MS,Verdana,Sans Serif" size=5>Testing 123.</font><br>
Produces:
Testing 123.
<font face="Arial,Helvetica,Cambria,Trebuchet MS,Verdana,Sans Serif" size=5><b>Testing 123.<b></font><br>
Produces:
Testing 123.
<font face="Consolas,Courier,Courier New" size=5>Testing 123.</font><br>
Produces:
Testing 123.
<font face="Consolas,Courier,Courier New" size=5><b>Testing 123.<b></font><br>
Produces:
Testing 123.
Special characters
Wikipedia list of Unicode characters
All unicode characters on one web page
Windows Alt charactersg