The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Georgia vs Times New Roman
Two of the most-recognized serifs on any computer, and both are commercial faces owned by Monotype or Carter & Cone rather than open-licensed. Times New Roman is a 1932 newspaper face drawn by Victor Lardent under Stanley Morison for The Times, while Georgia was designed by Matthew Carter in 1993 and released by Microsoft in 1996 specifically to stay legible on low-resolution screens.
Georgia is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Gelasio, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Georgia → Times New Roman is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Tinos, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Times New Roman →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- Georgia has a large x-height, reduced stroke contrast, and thickened serifs, with hand hinting by Thomas Rickner so it holds up at small sizes on screen.
- Times New Roman is based on Plantin but condensed, with higher thick-thin contrast and short descenders chosen to save column space in newsprint.
- Georgia's default numerals are old-style text figures that sit at lowercase height, giving running text a bookish rhythm Times New Roman doesn't have.
- Georgia's bold is unusually heavy and its Georgia Pro expansion adds condensed weights, small caps, and lining figures, sold per style by Carter & Cone and Fontspring.
- Both ship with Windows and macOS, but a licensed desktop or web copy is a paid purchase from Carter & Cone or Monotype, so licensing cost is a factor for either if you redistribute or self-host.
Georgia
Reach for Georgia for long-form reading on screens, blogs, and editorial sites where its sturdy strokes and old-style figures stay comfortable at body sizes.
Times New Roman
Reach for Times New Roman for print-first documents, academic manuscripts, and anywhere a narrow, space-saving traditional serif is expected or required.