Font Support on Windows Mobile Devices

  • Article

4/8/2010

A device running Windows Mobile Professional or Windows Mobile Classic includes at least the following two fonts:

  • Microsoft Tahoma (default variable-width font).
  • Courier (default fixed-width font).

A device running Windows Mobile Standard has default system fonts that must not be changed. The following default system fonts are expected:

  • Microsoft Segoe, except East Asian versions.
  • Microsoft Nina (9-point) for East Asian Windows Mobile Standard.

All other fonts are converted to the closest of these fonts, as defined by their font descriptions. Using the PRE XHTML Element tag for any fixed-width content ensures that Internet Explorer Mobile selects the correct fixed-width font.

Text in Images

Adding text as an image is a useful way to include on a page, a title, or other text feature, in a font not found on Windows Mobile devices and, therefore, is not available to Internet Explorer Mobile .

When you add text as an image, you should use a font designed specifically for computer screens. There are several excellent 1-bit-friendly fonts from which to select. For example, Microsoft Verdana displays well on bitmapped displays at all resolutions. Therefore, it is suitable for use on devices.

Text in bitmaps is not indexed by search engines like Microsoft MSN Search. You can add text in the <alt> tags of the images to enable search engines to effectively index the text in the graphics.

See Also

Concepts

HTML Support for Internet Explorer Mobile
Scripting Support in Internet Explorer Mobile

Other Resources

Internet Explorer Mobile Overview
Mobile Web Site Design Overview