19 of the Best Fonts for Websites

Fonts play a big role in a website’s design. They help shape how users navigate and read your website, and influence the way visitors view your brand.

A web-safe font guarantees your website is readable and looks the same across all accessing devices.

In this article, we will narrow down your choices to 19 of the best fonts for websites.

1. Playfair Display

One of the best fonts for website design is Playfair Display. It expresses an old charm with a modern twist, using a rounded and pointy serif font.

The font creates a traditional, reliable, and respectable design. It’s great for websites that aim to communicate credibility.

Playfair Display is one of the best fonts for website headers since it is a display type. It offers contrast through its expressive shape, without being pushy with the design.

The best pairing for this font includes sans serifs such as Roboto, Open Sans, Montserrat, and Lato. These pairings give clean and modern body copy for web design.

2. Arial

Arial has been widely used since the ’80s. This font is readable even in small sizes, and for this reason, Arial is considered a text type.

Since Arial is great for long blocks of text, it is fairly easy to pair with other fonts from different typefaces — as long as Arial acts as the main copy.

You can try pairing it with Times New Roman, Alternate Gothic, and Pacifico.

However, it’s also safe to use Arial font for both the heading and body copy. Just make sure you vary the style — italic, bold, size.

3. Arvo

Arvo is a slab-serif font. It creates contrast through stroke thickness, making it great for headlines.

For the body copy, serif typefaces such as PT Sans, Open Sans, and Montserrat compliment Arvo very well.

Websites with tech themes would work best with this font, because of the bold and modern noir style of Arvo.

4. Times New Roman

An example of the web safe font times new roman

Who hasn’t heard about the famous Times New Roman? It was originally designed for The Times of London newspaper back in 1932.

Since then, this font has been used for long texts such as magazines, newspapers, and even display advertising.

As a serif font, Times New Roman offers great readability since the font works well in small sizes.

For that reason, websites with long blocks of text like blogs and newsrooms are a good fit for Times New Roman.

5. Open Sans

Because of the sans serif simplicity, Open Sans works great for both headlines and main copies.

Headlines with this font are noticeably different from the text with the right styling — bold, italic, size.

At a glance, Open Sans looks very similar to Arial — both are text types. However, Open Sans looks more futuristic due to its lengthy strokes.

Open Sans offers great mobile readability, making the font a good option for apps and clean-looking tech websites.

You can see this font paired with other sans serifs such as Montserrat, Roboto, and Lato.

6. Lora

The third text type font on the list is Lora.

This font is great at appearing elegant and retro at the same time, making it suitable for websites like writing portfolios, design agencies, and online magazines.

The best pairing for Lora is sans serif fonts like Montserrat and Open Sans, especially in bold styling.

7. Alegreya

This font is highly legible and readable both in print and on-screen.

Alegreya is a font you see often in children’s books. It guides the eyes to read the next sentence with a smooth transition.

It comes as no surprise that Alegreya was originally designed for literature. However, it has evolved in usage.

Alegreya is now often used in high-end websites due to its classy serif strokes.

For a sophisticated look, use Alegreya for both the headline and body copy with varying styles — bold, italic, size.

8. Roboto

As a sans serif font, Roboto has limitless use, thanks to its readability in numerous styles. It’s available in thin, light, medium, bold, and black with an italic option to each type.

Roboto can be seamlessly paired with any font from different typefaces. However, the font is widely paired with its own family font due to the large number of options available.

This font is best for tech sites and apps because of how clean and modern the font looks. It’s also easy to read on mobile devices.

9. Quicksand

If you are aiming for a modern, casual, yet elegant web-safe font, Quicksand is for you. This font is great for business websites selling items for home decor and DIY projects.

Quicksand is meant as a display font due to its rounded edges, making it great for large-sized text such as headings.

However, it can also be used for body copy in small portions. Pair it with other sans serif typefaces like Open Sans and Montserrat for a complementary look.

10. Titillium

Titillium comes in six styles: extra light, light, regular, semi bold, bold, and black. Each has an italic option except for the black style.

Because the font offers a vast range of styles, Titillium is safe to use as a heading, subheadings, and body copy.

Titillium’s sans serif typeface creates a modern and clean look, almost futuristic. As a result, it’s great for websites about technology, finance, science, and health.

11. Exo

In a quick glance, Exo may look similar to Titillium.

However, Exo has more rounded edges, which conveys a more futuristic, elegant feeling. This font is great for airline, tech, sci-fi, and gaming websites.

Exo is used for subheadings and body copy because of its smooth curves and fine edges.

The font comes in nine styles, each with a promising italic style: thin, extra light, light, regular, medium, semi bold, bold, extra bold, and black.

Pair Exo with other sans serifs like Roboto and Open Sans for a neat and modern looking website.

12. Montserrat

Montserrat is great for creating a simple and clean-looking web design. The font has nine styles from thin to black with a true italic to each.

As a sans serif typeface, Montserrat has high readability. This font makes a great main copy of the website hierarchy.

Try mixing and matching Montserrat with its two sister families: Montserrat Alternates and Montserrat Subrayada.

13. Libre Baskerville

Are you looking for a font that is dedicated to on-screen reading? Libre Baskerville is a great choice.

This font comes in three simple styles: regular, italic, and bold with no italic option.

As a serif typeface, Libre Baskerville offers a trustworthy and established image. The font is great for agency and business websites.

If you want to create timeless beauty, pair Libre Baskerville with Playfair Display as the heading.

But if you’re looking for more casual web design, simply pair Libre Baskerville with san serifs such as Open Sans, Roboto, or Lato.

14. Alternate Gothic

Alternate Gothic is strong and attention-grabbing because of its tall letterforms.

As a display type, Alternate Gothic works especially well in big sizes. So avoid using it for body copy.

To complement Alternate Gothic’s letterforms, pair the font with serif typefaces as the main copy. This pairing will create class and elegance.

Website themes that complement this font are tourism, travel, and nature.

15. Pacifico

Following Playfair Display and Alternate Gothic as a display type font is Pacifico. This font has a creative, expressive, and friendly style to it.

Despite looking fun, Pacifico expresses a feeling of elegance when paired correctly.

Use it with sans serif fonts like Roboto, Montserrat, and Open Sans.

16. Dosis

Futuristic, modern, and clean with its rounded edges, Dosis comes in seven styles: extra light, light, regular, medium, semi bold, bold, and black.

Because of its tall and rounded endings, Dosis makes a great font for tech sites and apps. With clear readability, it’s helpful for easy navigation.

Dosis is a display font, so it looks best in big sizes like headlines and little blocks of subheadings. Pair Dosis with clean sans serifs like Open Sans and Roboto for readability.

17. Crimson Text

As a serif font, Crimson Text delivers an elegant and classy look. The font makes for good body copy due to its readability.

If you aim for an elegant-looking website, don’t hesitate to choose Crimson Text as your heading. Pair it with sans serif fonts like Montserrat or Roboto.

18. PT Sans

A stable sans serif font that won’t distract. It’s clean, without any embellishment or unnecessary detail. This font gives off a stable, objective, clean, and modern feeling.

PT Sans is great for an art gallery website, online magazine, and other high-end-looking websites with a great chunk of body copy.

Pair PT Sans with a serif font to complement and maximize the clean look.

19. Poppins

Like many other fonts on this list, Poppins comes equipped with many styles ranging from thin, extra light, to extra bold and black — each with an italic option.

This sans serif font is a multilingual font under Indian Type Foundry (ITF). This means the characters are friendly for Indian and Latin scripts.

Since this font comes in various styles, it’s great for a heading, subheading, and body copy for consistent web design.

This font is popularly paired with both serif fonts and sans serif fonts like Playfair Display and Roboto.

Why is web-safe font important?

Web-safe fonts help your website’s consistency, resolution, and availability across all devices, screens, and browsers.

Without web-safe fonts, there is a chance your fonts will render as unreadable random symbols on some devices. That’s why such fonts are important.

Web safe fonts used to be limited to Microsoft fonts like Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, and a few others.

However, since typography is one of the biggest factors for good web design, new options emerged.

Web font services such as Google Fonts, Adobe Typekit, and Font Squirrel gained widespread popularity for their web-safe font supply.

Brand Identity

To create a memorable brand, you need to make sure every element of web design pairs well. That, of course, includes fonts.

Focus on the characteristics of the font and how it represents your brand to your audience.

Each font falls into one of these four characteristics categories, they are:

Traditional, respectable, comfortable, and reliable — this category is closely associated with fonts from serif typefaces such as Times New Roman, Libre Baskerville, and Alegreya. They are a perfect use for news, entertainment, and informational sites as well as print.
Contemporary, modern, minimalistic, and clean — this category is closely associated with fonts from sans serif typeface such as Arial, Open Sans, Roboto, and Titillium. These fonts are best used for the web since they are readable in small sizes.
Strong, stable, and defined — this category is closely associated with fonts from modern typefaces and slab-serif typefaces such as Playfair Display, Arvo, Quicksand, and Pacifico. Modern typeface fonts offer a progressive, stylish and chic feel to your website. Slab-serif typefaces are great for headings due to their thick and block-like serif style.
Romantic, elegant, beautiful, and vintage — this category is closely associated with script typefaces such as Crimson Text, Pacifico, Lora, and Playfair Display. They can come from serif typefaces too. However, they are usually cursive – hence, the elegance and vintage look.

Readable

Readability is crucial in your web design. While this may not surprise you, it helps in retaining visitors’ attention.

If you can’t skim your texts, neither will your visitors. So get rid of that fancy font, because readability is the main priority of web design.

Flexible

Your website isn’t private. It’s open for millions of people to see from different devices and screen sizes.

Make sure your font looks good across all platforms.

Complementary

Avoid cluttering your website with more than four different fonts — headings, subheadings, body copy, and quotes.

You can make it easier on the eyes by having the same font for your headings and subheading. Change the size and style (bold, italic, or normal) for separation.

Having well-paired fonts will ease your visitors into working out what your website is trying to communicate.

Now, if you think that was a little overwhelming, sit back and relax – Zyro’s got you covered.

Zyro’s Website Builder offers free designer templates with web-safe fonts.

Best fonts for websites are web-safe

Web-safe fonts are extremely important for website design. They ensure your site looks good across all devices.

Different fonts evoke different emotions.

To communicate a credible and established website, consider using serif fonts such as Playfair Display, Times New Roman, Lora, Alegreya, Libre Baskerville, or Crimson Text.

If you want to state a clean and minimalist website with a legible body copy, use sans serif fonts like Arial, Open Sans, Roboto, Titillium, Exo, Montserrat, PT Sans, or Poppins.

For more decorative headings, use strong and defined fonts like Arvo, Comic Sans, Alternate Gothic, Pacifico, or Dosis.

Know your brand, choose a voice, and then consider your font.

We hope that by now you are ready to choose a font that represents your website. Good luck.