Georgia-Based Serif Font Stack

Georgia-Based Serif Stack

Georgia is arguably the most successful serif font ever designed for screen use. Created by Matthew Carter in 1993 for Microsoft, it was specifically optimised for low-resolution displays and remains one of the most readable serif typefaces at body-text sizes.

The Declaration

font-family: Georgia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino,
  "Book Antiqua", Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;

Why Georgia Is Special

Georgia was designed with:

• Large x-height for readability at small sizes
• Wide letterforms that avoid the cramped feeling of Times New Roman
• Handcrafted hinting for ClearType and sub-pixel rendering
• Bold and italic variants that are distinct and well-designed

The Fallback Chain

1. Palatino Linotype (Windows) / Palatino (macOS) / Book Antiqua (Windows alias): These Palatino variants share Georgia's humanist warmth and generous proportions.
2. Cambria: Designed for Microsoft ClearType, works well at body sizes on Windows.
3. Times New Roman / Times: The universal serif fallback. Less ideal for screens but always available.
4. serif: Generic keyword.

Metric Compatibility

Georgia has notably larger metrics than Times New Roman. When falling back from Georgia to Times, text will appear smaller and lines may reflow. To mitigate this, use font-size-adjust: 0.5; to normalise the x-height across fallbacks:

font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;
font-size-adjust: 0.5;