font-family property CSS Reference

Definition and Usage

The font-family CSS property allows for a prioritized list of font family names and/or generic family names to be specified for the selected element. Unlike most other CSS properties, values are separated by a comma to indicate that they are alternatives. The browser will select the first font on the list that is installed on the computer, or that can be downloaded using the information provided by a @font-face at-rule.

Web authors should always add at least one generic family in a font-family list, since there's no guarantee that a specific font is intalled on the computer or can be downloaded using a @font-face at-rule. The generic family lets the browser select an acceptable fallback font when needed.

It is often convenient to use the shorthand property font to set font-size and other font related properties all at once.

Note: The font-family property specifies a list of fonts, from highest priority to lowest. Font selection does not simply stop at the first font named in the list that is on the user's system. Rather, font selection is done one character at a time, so that if an available font does not have a glyph that can display a character needed, the later available fonts are tried. However, this doesn't work in Internet Explorer.

When a font is only available in some styles, variants, or sizes, those properties may also influence which font family is chosen.

• Initial depends on user agent
• Applies to all elements
• Inherited yes
• Media visual
• Computed Value as specified
• Animatable no
• Canonical order the unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

Formal syntax: [ <family-name> | <generic-family> ]#

font-family: Gill Sans Extrabold, sans-serif
font-family: "Goudy Bookletter 1911", sans-serif
font-family: sans-serif
font-family: serif
font-family: fantasy
font-family: cursive
font-family: monospace
font-family: inherit

Values

Valid family names

Font family names must either be given quoted as strings, or unquoted as a sequence of one or more identifiers. This means that punctuation characters and digits at the start of each token must be escaped in unquoted font family names.

For example, the following declarations are valid:

font-family: Gill Sans Extrabold, sans-serif;
font-family: "Goudy Bookletter 1911", sans-serif;

The following declarations are invalid:

font-family: Goudy Bookletter 1911, sans-serif;
font-family: Red/Black, sans-serif;
font-family: "Lucida" Grande, sans-serif;
font-family: Ahem!, sans-serif;
font-family: test@foo, sans-serif;
font-family: #POUND, sans-serif;
font-family: Hawaii 5-0, sans-serif;

Examples

Example 1

body     { font-family: "Gill Sans Extrabold", Helvetica, sans-serif }
.receipt { font-family: Courier, "Lucida Console", monospace }

Example 2

.exampleserif {
    font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", Georgia, serif;
}
.examplesansserif {
    font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
.examplemonospace {
    font-family: "Lucida Console", Courier, monospace;
}
.examplecursive {
    font-family: cursive;
}
.examplefantasy {
    font-family: fantasy;
}

Compatibility

Desktop browsers

Mobile browsers