How to tell what font is on a page

It's relatively easy to determine what type of font is used on a web page or in a document. There are several ways to go about it, depending on where you're viewing the text, and how frequently you intend to check font styles.

The font in a document

If you are viewing a document in a word processor, highlight the text and look in the toolbar at the font option. It should display what font is used in the highlighted text.

The font on a web page

Via word processor or text editor

You can highlight the text on the web page that you want to determine the font. Copy that text (right-click with your mouse and select Copy, or press Ctrl+C on your keyboard). Open a word processing application or text editor and paste (right-click with your mouse and select Paste, or press Ctrl+V on your keyboard) the text in a new document. Highlight the text again in the word processing document and look at the font option in the toolbar. It should display which type of font is used for that text.

Via plug-in

If you frequently like to check the fonts used on a web page, you might want to download a plug-in for your Internet browser. These plug-ins run automatically when you view a web page and can be accessed using a button on your toolbar. Most function similarly, either by highlighting the text or hovering over the font and clicking a button in the toolbar. The font name should appear in a pop-up window or text bubble.

Via source code

A more difficult, but still valid option to utilize is checking the source code for the web page. You can usually view the source code by right-clicking, on the web page and selecting the View page source option in the pop-up menu. The source displays the programming code used to build the web page. In this source code, you can find the type of font used for the text on the web page. However, often the font type is specified in a CSS (cascading style sheets) file, which may not be available for view.