Free fonts similar to Tahoma
Tahoma is Verdana’s narrower sibling, made for menus and dialog boxes where space is tight. It has only a regular and a bold, with no italic. On the web it usually shows up in older font stacks and in interfaces that want the Windows XP look.
Short answer: the closest free alternative to Tahoma is PT Sans. Noto Sans is also worth a look. All are open source and free for commercial use.
Tahoma is not installed on this device, so it cannot be drawn here. The free alternatives below are live. On a device that has it, this row shows the original and unlocks the overlay.
/* PT Sans is open source. Self-host it or load it from Google Fonts. */ font-family: "PT Sans", Tahoma, Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif;
The alternatives in detail
1. PT Sans
Why it works. A compact humanist sans with a similar economical width, clear at small sizes, and with real italics.
What differs. More calligraphic in its details and a little lighter in color. Regular and bold only, like Tahoma.
2. Noto Sans
Why it works. A neutral humanist sans with a wide weight range and very broad language support.
What differs. Wider and more open than Tahoma, so tight interface labels may need a smaller size.
How to recognize Tahoma
Matthew Carter for Microsoft, 1994. It shipped with Windows 95 and was the default interface font of Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
- The same sturdy shapes as Verdana, but narrower and much more tightly spaced.
- There is no true italic. Slanted Tahoma is synthesized by the browser.
- It appears in stacks such as Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif, a preset from older web editors.
Is Tahoma free?
Ships with Windows and macOS, but not with Android or most Linux systems. It is not open source and cannot be served as a web font without a license, although it is now also in the Adobe Fonts library.
The alternatives on this page are open source, so you can use them on commercial sites, self-host the files and ship them in products. Read more in font licensing in plain English.
Use PT Sans in your CSS
Put the free font first and keep sensible fallbacks behind it. Self-hosting the files is the most private and usually the fastest option.
@font-face {
font-family: "PT Sans";
src: url("/fonts/pt-sans-400.woff2") format("woff2");
font-weight: 400;
font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "PT Sans";
src: url("/fonts/pt-sans-700.woff2") format("woff2");
font-weight: 700;
font-display: swap;
}
body {
font-family: "PT Sans", Tahoma, Geneva, Verdana, sans-serif;
}Saw a font you can’t place, or can’t afford?
Font Inspector names the font on any website in one click. For popular paid and system fonts it suggests free look-alikes right in the panel.
Questions & answers
What is the closest free font to Tahoma?+
PT Sans is the closest free alternative to Tahoma. A compact humanist sans with a similar economical width, clear at small sizes, and with real italics. Noto Sans is also worth testing.
Is Tahoma free to use?+
Ships with Windows and macOS, but not with Android or most Linux systems. It is not open source and cannot be served as a web font without a license, although it is now also in the Adobe Fonts library.
What Google Font looks like Tahoma?+
On Google Fonts, the nearest matches are PT Sans and Noto Sans. All are open source and free for commercial use. None is an exact copy, so compare them with your own text first.
How can I tell whether a website uses Tahoma?+
Inspect the text. Browser DevTools show the rendered font in the Computed tab, and the Font Inspector extension shows the family, the rendered font and free look-alikes in one click.
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