Font sampler: Reference survey for web design

How many of us pick fonts based on personal taste, what we think is best or what we desire for those browsing our web sites to see? I’m probably guilty of this myself.

Here’s a look at mainstream fonts, by operating system, with some interesting results based on user surveys.

There is a school of thought that says Web designers should not override the default font setting in the user’s browser; by default or explicit choice this is the user’s preference and it should be respected. More commonly, designers will seek to apply specific named fonts, if only for headings or special passages, so it’s useful to know one’s probability of success.

What I think is most interesting is that for Windows, Comic Sans MS is one of the top fonts and that probably explains why it’s seen on so many, shall I say, poorly designed websites.