Android WebView safe font family?

Hossain Khan picture Hossain Khan · Nov 9, 2011 · Viewed 13.5k times · Source

No, like others, I don't want to use custom fonts. I am looking for list of WebView safe fonts that can be used without using CSS3's custom @font-face, which loads ttf/wof/eot font from web/local storage.

More refined question would be: What are the list font's that are included with Android Operating System which can be used inside WebView?

For example, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif, etc font can be used (not sure), so where exactly to look for to be 100% sure?

Thanks

Answer

Sherif elKhatib picture Sherif elKhatib · Nov 15, 2011

Webview: It uses the WebKit rendering engine to display web pages

According to the source code, android.webkit.WebSettings contains the following fields:

private String          mStandardFontFamily = "sans-serif";
private String          mFixedFontFamily = "monospace";
private String          mSansSerifFontFamily = "sans-serif";
private String          mSerifFontFamily = "serif";
private String          mCursiveFontFamily = "cursive";
private String          mFantasyFontFamily = "fantasy";

Accordingly, these are the fonts.

There is probably more fonts buried somewhere in the WebKit. However, they do not appear to be accessible.


This complies with the default fonts of Linux:

  • Sans-serif fonts: Arial Black, Arial, Comic Sans MS, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana
  • Serif fonts: Georgia and Times New Roman
  • Monospace fonts: Andale Mono and Courier New
  • Fantasy fonts: Impact and Webdings

Bottom line, there is no comprehensive list of fonts for the Android WebKit.