Georgia is a font designed in 1993 by Matthew Carter for Microsoft. It is designed specifically for clarity on a computer monitor even at small sizes, partially due to a relatively large x-height. It was named after a test tabloid headline about alien heads found in the state of Georgia.

The Georgia typeface is very similar to Times New Roman, though Georgia is noticeably larger than TNR at the same point size. Also, TNR's Characters are a bit more compressed while Georgia's are spaced closer together. When one compensates for the size differences and disregards the differences in compression and spacing, the remaining differences are rather subtle. For most letters it is difficult to discern the difference between Georgia and Times New Roman. For a number of letters, the only difference is that Georgia's serifs are slightly wider and tend to have blunter, flatter ends.

Along with Hoefler Text, it is one of the few fonts in common usage with text figures numerals, which are designed to flow better when inserted into lines of text (see sample at right). On the other hand, it is less convenient for displaying numbers in columnar layout, as the numerals are not monospaced.

Georgia is part of the Web core fonts package and is preinstalled by default on Macintosh and Windows-based computers. It has found popular use as an alternative serifed font to Times New Roman.

See also

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• Core fonts for the Web

References

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"Georgia & Verdana Typefaces designed for the screen (finally)", by Daniel Will-Harris, accessed 24 November, 2005

External links

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• Georgia font information (Microsoft typography)
• Downloadable version of Georgia (Core fonts for the Web)

Microsoft typefaces | Serif typefaces | Typefaces | 1993 introductions | Georgia (teckensnitt)