What Font Does Windows XP Use? XP and Vista System Fonts Explained

Windows XP uses Tahoma as its main system font. Dialog boxes, menus, icon labels and most other interface text appear in Tahoma at 8 point, while the default Luna theme draws window title bars in Trebuchet MS. Windows Vista replaced Tahoma with Segoe UI at 9 point, a font Microsoft created for on-screen reading and that it only ships with its own products.

This page lists which font each version uses for each part of the interface, explains why Vista text looks different, and shows how to change the interface font on an XP machine with fonts you are licensed to use.

What font does Windows XP use?

The Windows XP system font is Tahoma, a narrow sans serif typeface by Matthew Carter that Microsoft describes as a tighter cousin of Verdana built to be easy to read on screen. XP ships Tahoma version 3.00. Applications do not usually ask for Tahoma by name: Microsoft's developer guidance tells programs that target Windows XP and Windows 2000 to use the 8 point "MS Shell Dlg 2" pseudo font, and Windows maps that name to Tahoma. That is why almost every dialog on XP looks the same, from the Control Panel to third party installers.

Two other fonts shape the familiar XP look:

• Trebuchet MS for title bars in the default Luna theme (blue, olive green and silver), shown in bold. Vincent Connare designed it at Microsoft in 1996, and XP includes version 1.22.
• MS Sans Serif for a few older elements and for older programs that still request the original "MS Shell Dlg" name instead of MS Shell Dlg 2.

If you switch XP to the Windows Classic theme, title bars drop Trebuchet MS and use a bold version of the default interface font instead, so the whole desktop reads in Tahoma.

What font did Windows Vista use?

Windows Vista uses Segoe UI (pronounced "SEE-go") as its system font, and it raised the standard interface size from 8 to 9 point. Microsoft's design guidelines call Segoe UI "the Windows system font" and advise developers not to use it below 9 point, because the font is tuned for that size and up. Vista ships Segoe UI version 5.00, and the same font stayed the system font in Windows 7.

Vista also introduced a set of new fonts for East Asian and other scripts, including Meiryo for Japanese, Malgun Gothic for Korean, Microsoft YaHei and Microsoft JhengHei for Chinese, and the ClearType font collection for documents. That collection includes Calibri, which Lucas de Groot designed and which became the default font in Microsoft Office in 2007.

Segoe UI is not offered as a separate download. Microsoft's font page lists it as "exclusively included with Microsoft products and services", and Windows XP does not appear in its list of products. Treat "Vista font pack" downloads for XP with caution: Microsoft does not license Segoe UI for redistribution that way.

Windows XP vs Windows Vista fonts at a glance

The main difference is the interface font: Tahoma at 8 point on XP, Segoe UI at 9 point on Vista. The table compares the default fonts per interface element.

Font versions differ too: Tahoma is version 3.00 on XP and 5.01 on Vista, Trebuchet MS is 1.22 on XP and 5.00 on Vista, according to Microsoft's typography pages.

How to use Vista-style fonts on Windows XP legally

The legal way to get the newer Microsoft fonts onto XP was always through Microsoft software that installs them, not through font download sites. For years the free PowerPoint Viewer 2007 did exactly that: its installer added the ClearType collection (Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas, Constantia and Corbel) to the XP fonts folder, and the fonts stayed after the viewer was removed. Segoe UI was never part of that package.

That route is closed today. Microsoft retired the PowerPoint Viewer, the PowerPoint 2007 Viewer and the Office Compatibility Pack in April 2018, and they are no longer available for download from Microsoft. Your remaining legitimate options are:

• Fonts already installed by a licensed copy of Office 2007 or Office 2010 (the last Office versions that run on XP) on that XP machine.
• Free fonts with an open license, which you can install by copying the font file into the Fonts folder in Control Panel.
• Fonts you have bought a license for.

Keep in mind that Microsoft ended extended support for Windows XP in April 2014, so the system no longer receives security updates. For a machine that goes online, moving to a supported version of Windows is the safer way to get Segoe UI.

How to change the system font in Windows XP

Windows XP lets you change the interface font per element in the Advanced Appearance dialog. Follow these steps:

1. Right-click an empty area of the desktop and select Properties.
2. Open the Appearance tab and click Advanced.
3. Pick an element in the Item list, for example Menu, Message Box, Icon or Active Title Bar.
4. Select a font and size in the Font fields and click OK, then Apply.

Two tips help the result look right. Turn on ClearType on the same tab under Effects (smooth edges of screen fonts, method ClearType), because the ClearType collection fonts were designed for it and look blurry or thin without it on LCD screens. Check custom visual styles after the change: some newer fonts are wider than Tahoma and can push text out of buttons or title bars, so lower the size by one point or try another font if labels get cut off. Note that only the elements in the Item list change; dialog text drawn through MS Shell Dlg 2 stays in Tahoma.

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