font-family

The font-family CSS property specifies a prioritized list of one or more font family names and/or generic family names for the selected element.

css

font-family: "Georgia", serif;

css

font-family: "Gill Sans", sans-serif;

css

font-family: sans-serif;

css

font-family: serif;

css

font-family: cursive;

css

font-family: system-ui;

html

<section id="default-example">
  <p id="example-element">
    London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in
    Lincoln's Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets
    as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it
    would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so,
    waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.
  </p>
</section>

css

section {
  font-size: 1.2em;
}

Values are separated by commas to indicate that they are alternatives. The browser will select the first font in the list that is installed or that can be downloaded using a {{CSSxRef("@font-face")}} at-rule.

It is often convenient to use the shorthand property {{CSSxRef("font")}} to set font-size and other font related properties all at once.

You should always include at least one generic family name in a font-family list, since there's no guarantee that any given font is available. This lets the browser select an acceptable fallback font when necessary.

The font-family property specifies a list of fonts, from highest priority to lowest. Font selection does not stop at the first font 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 for a needed character, the latter fonts are tried. When a font is only available in some styles, variants, or sizes, those properties may also influence which font family is chosen.

Syntax

css

/* A font family name and a generic family name */
font-family: "Gill Sans Extrabold", sans-serif;
font-family: "Goudy Bookletter 1911", sans-serif;

/* A generic family name only */
font-family: serif;
font-family: sans-serif;
font-family: monospace;
font-family: cursive;
font-family: fantasy;
font-family: system-ui;
font-family: ui-serif;
font-family: ui-sans-serif;
font-family: ui-monospace;
font-family: ui-rounded;
font-family: math;
font-family: fangsong;

/* Global values */
font-family: inherit;
font-family: initial;
font-family: revert;
font-family: revert-layer;
font-family: unset;

The font-family property lists one or more font families, separated by commas. Each font family is specified as either a <family-name> or a <generic-name> value.

The example below lists two font families, the first with a <family-name> and the second with a <generic-name>:

css

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

Values

<family-name>
- : The name of a font family. This must be either a single {{cssxref("string")}} value or a space-separated sequence of {{cssxref("custom-ident")}} values. String values must be quoted but may contain any Unicode character. Custom identifiers are not quoted, but certain characters must be escaped.
  
  It is good practice to quote font family names that contain white space, digits, or punctuation characters other than hyphens.
  
  See also Valid family names.
<generic-name>
- : Generic font families are a fallback mechanism, a means of preserving some of the style sheet author's intent when none of the specified fonts are available. Generic family names are keywords and must not be quoted. A generic font family should be the last item in the list of font family names. The following keywords are defined:
  - serif
    - : Glyphs have finishing strokes, flared or tapering ends, or have actual serifed endings.
      
      For example: Lucida Bright, Lucida Fax, Palatino, Palatino Linotype, Palladio, URW Palladio, serif.
  - sans-serif
    - : Glyphs have stroke endings that are plain.
      
      For example: Open Sans, Fira Sans, Lucida Sans, Lucida Sans Unicode, Trebuchet MS, Liberation Sans, Nimbus Sans L, sans-serif.
  - monospace
    - : All glyphs have the same fixed width.
      
      For example: Fira Mono, DejaVu Sans Mono, Menlo, Consolas, Liberation Mono, Monaco, Lucida Console, monospace.
  - cursive
    - : Glyphs in cursive fonts generally have either joining strokes or other cursive characteristics beyond those of italic typefaces. The glyphs are partially or completely connected, and the result looks more like handwritten pen or brush writing than printed letter work.
      
      For example: Brush Script MT, Brush Script Std, Lucida Calligraphy, Lucida Handwriting, Apple Chancery, cursive.
  - fantasy
    - : Fantasy fonts are primarily decorative fonts that contain playful representations of characters.
      
      For example: Papyrus, Herculanum, Party LET, Curlz MT, Harrington, fantasy.
  - system-ui
    - : Glyphs are taken from the default user interface font on a given platform. Because typographic traditions vary widely across the world, this generic is provided for typefaces that don't map cleanly into the other generics.
      
      [!NOTE] As the name implies, system-ui is intended to make UI elements look like native apps, and not for typesetting large paragraphs of text. It may cause the displayed typeface to be undesirable for some users—for example, the default Windows CJK font may render Latin scripts poorly, and the lang attribute may not affect the displayed font. Some operating systems do not allow customizing system-ui, while browsers generally allow customizing the sans-serif font family. For large paragraphs, use sans-serif or some other non-UI font family instead.
  - ui-serif
    - : The default user interface serif font.
  - ui-sans-serif
    - : The default user interface sans-serif font.
  - ui-monospace
    - : The default user interface monospace font.
  - ui-rounded
    - : The default user interface font that has rounded features.
  - math
    - : Font that addresses the particular stylistic concerns of representing mathematics: superscript and subscript, brackets that cross several lines, nesting expressions, and double struck glyphs with distinct meanings. UA stylesheets may set math { font-family: math } so that the {{MathMLElement("math")}} element uses appropriate fonts by default.
  - fangsong
    - : A particular style of Chinese characters that are between serif-style Song and cursive-style Kai forms. This style is often used for government documents.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

Examples

Some common font families

css

.serif {
  font-family: "Times", "Times New Roman", "Georgia", serif;
}

.sansserif {
  font-family: "Verdana", "Helvetica", "Arial", sans-serif;
}

.monospace {
  font-family: "Lucida Console", "Courier New", monospace;
}

.cursive {
  font-family: cursive;
}

.fantasy {
  font-family: fantasy;
}

.math {
  font-family: math;
}

.fangsong {
  font-family: fangsong;
}

css

div {
  margin: 0.5rem;
}

html

<div class="serif">This is an example of a serif font.</div>

<div class="sansserif">This is an example of a sans-serif font.</div>

<div class="monospace">This is an example of a monospace font.</div>

<div class="cursive">This is an example of a cursive font.</div>

<div class="fantasy">This is an example of a fantasy font.</div>

<div class="fangsong">This is an example of a fangsong font.</div>

<div class="math">This is an example of a math font: ℝ, ∫, ∑…</div>

Valid family names

The following declarations are valid:

css

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

The following declarations are invalid:

css-nolint

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;

The following example is technically valid but is not recommended:

css

font-family:
  Gill Sans Extrabold,
  sans-serif;