Android WebView safe font family?

Question

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

Solution

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.

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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.

Comments

[Hossain Khan]

I'm looking into Android 3.0 and above. Font should be globally available regardless of device OEM (Samsung/LG/Acer/Sony/etc).

[Alex]

Is this helpful?

[Hossain Khan]

@Alex not exactly, these fonts can not be used inside WebView without using CSS3 @font-face (unless I am missing something). So, you can not just say: body { font-family: "Droid Sans"; } or body { font-family: "Droid Serif"; } .... none of them work. But body { font-family: Arial; } probably works, but I want to know where to look for list of available fonts like arial.

[Hossain Khan]

Okay here are some question which are very close to what I am looking for: stackoverflow.com/questions/3532397/… - Says there is no way to retrive list of available fonts bundled for WebKit. And stackoverflow.com/questions/6809944/default-font-set-on-andr‌​oid - does not have the exact answer what I am also looking for.

[Hossain Khan]

Understood! +1 for taking your time to clarify this. Thanks

[Sean Aitken]

Through my tests it seems that the Droid family is the only one included. Anything else should be free or will need to be licensed, and still included through CSS.

[Roel]

Are there in the meanwhile new fonts added on recent Android versions?

[Karthikkumar]

Can you help me how to solve my problem here is the link stackoverflow.com/questions/65108865/…