This reference lists common Microsoft fonts and their Google Open Source equivalents, along with two additional must-have fonts. Unless you’re a media developer, Google can be a one-stop shop for fonts. We currently have nothing but Google fonts active on our MX Linux 21.3 desktop.
The table list below could best be described as “everyday utilitarian.” Short of Web development or graphic artistry and design, the table has all the fonts we need for daily use and then some. We like Google fonts because of their commonality (used everywhere), ease of use as webfonts, functionality, and because they’re free.
Many of the Google fonts have multiple styles and weights, which is indispensable when publishing to a variety of media and content providers, and/or when working cross-platform. We especially like the variety in the heavier font styles (eg Robot Medium and Roboto Black) which helps with aging eyes.
We’ve included a link to attractive Google font parings in the “Further Resources” section below. If you frequently work cooperatively on content with users of other OSes like Microsoft Windows, there’s a download link for the standby MS Core fonts in “Further Resources” as well.
Typography, if one doesn’t employ self discipline, can be the time-wasting “rabbit hole of no return.” This article is the first step in a “typography for the rest of us” approach. The overall idea of such an approach will be to settle on a (hopefully) small number of usable fonts and font pairings for non-designers. That is, to find a way to keep digital content presentable, modern, and professional looking that doesn’t require advanced study in 2-D design.
Table of Font Equivalents and Useful Fonts
Font names in the “Google Equiv” column are download links, with some font downloads linked in the comments section as well. Refer to the “Glossary” section for terms used in the “Comments” column.
| MS Font | Google Equiv | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Arial | Arimo | Google’s free, metrically equivalent look-alike font for Arial. |
| Calibri | Carlito | Google’s free, metrically equivalent look-alike font for Calibri. |
| Cambria | Caladea | Google’s free, metrically equivalent look-alike font for Cambria. |
| Comic Sans | Comic Neue | Google’s free, metrically equivalent replacement font for Comic Sans with more styles. |
| Courier New | Courier Prime | Google’s free, metrically equivalent replacement font for the classic typewriter font, Courier New, with more styles. |
| Georgia | Gelasio | Google’s free, metrically equivalent look-alike font for Georgia. |
| Impact | Anton | Google’s free, perhaps metrically equivalent look-alike font for Microsoft’s Impact headline font. |
| Times New Roman | Tinos | Google’s free, metrically equivalent look-alike font for Times New Roman. |
| Verdana | Noto Sans | Google’s free and near-metrical equivalent look-alike font for Verdana. |
| Useful Fonts | Google Name | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Noto (family) | Noto | The Noto family is a collection of high-quality fonts with multiple weights and widths in sans, serif, mono, and other styles. The Noto fonts are perfect for harmonious, aesthetic, and typographically correct global communication, in more than 1,000 languages and over 150 writing systems. Six possibly useful members of the Noto family for users of the Latin alphabet are 1) Noto Sans, 2) Noto Sans Math, 3) Noto Sans Mono, 4) Noto Sans Symbols, 5) Noto Sans Symbols 2, and 6) Noto Serif. |
| Roboto (family) | Roboto | The Roboto family is Google’s one-stop solution for all devices and media. There are four members of the family: 1) Roboto (sans-serif), 2) Roboto Mono 3) Roboto Condensed, and 4) Roboto Serif (a slab-serif font that requires much patience while the Google download readies itself). Roboto’s claim to fame is that it looks good on all types of devices as well as in print, and it’s easy to read. It has become the Times New Roman or Arial font of the 21st Century. Roboto is Latin alphabet only, but contains letters with diacritical marks so it can be used for Romance languages. It lacks an uppercase eszett which might complicate German typography. |
Glossary
- Look-alike:
A subjective descriptor that means about 95% of the people who view the two fonts side-by-side won’t see a difference.
DO NOT ASSUME metrical equivalency for look-alike fonts. Metrics are usually close, but often not exact.
- Metrically Equivalent:
Means that each character takes up the same amount of space horizontally and vertically as the font it’s replacing. This is important when substituting into a document where we want to maintain the previous layout exactly.
Example: A spreadsheet created in Excel on a Windows PC, then transported to LibreOffice on Linux where a whole different set of fonts may be play. Plugging metrically different fonts into a multi-sheet production spreadsheet can be quite the introduction to column resizing and page overflow. (We have experienced this.)
- Replacement:
Means the font has the style and feel of the original but not the exact look. Differences can be noticed by the average user.
Example: Comic Neue aspires to be the casual script choice for everyone, including the typographically savvy. The glyphic weirdness of Comic Sans has been been given a makeover, while maintaining the informality that made Comic Sans so popular in the first place.
Further Resources
- Top 50 Google Font Pairings (Handpicked by Pro Designers)—An article showcasing the most attractive font pairings from Google that can easily be added to your document, slide show, or website.
- Microsoft Core Fonts Download—Microsoft’s standard pack of fonts for the World Wide Web, still legally available from certain Web sources. Usually distributed as
.exefiles, this download is a.tar.gzcontaining all the font.exefiles. You can likely access the.exefiles via your Linux distro’s archiver app to extract the actual.ttffiles.
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