Sans-Serif:
A serif is the tiny stroke at the end of the main strokes of a font character. A font family that does not have these serifs is called a sans-serif font. Sans-serif fonts are best used online, as they are easier to read there. On the Web serifs can make the fonts more difficult to read, especially at small sizes, but sans-serif fonts do not have this problem.
Examples: Arial, Arial Black, Impact, Trebuchet MS, Verdana (
nice one), Helvetica, Arial Rounded, VAG Rounded, Avant Garde, Century Gothic, Optima, Omega, Zapf Humanist, Univers, Zurich, ITC Avant Garde Gothic
Serif:
A serif is the tiny stroke at the end of the main strokes of a font character. A font family that has these serifs is called a serif font.
Serif fonts are best used in print, as they are easier to read there. On the Web the serifs can make these fonts more difficult to read, especially at small sizes, as most computer monitors don't have the resolution to display them clearly.
Examples: Georgia, Times New Roman, Palatino (
nice one), Palatino Linotype, Book Antiqua, Times, Garamond, ITC Stone Serif
Monospace:
A monospace font looks like a typewriter font.
Each letter takes up the same width and the rest - including i and w. Monospace fonts are best used to define code and preformatted text.
Examples: Andale Mono, Courier New, Courier
For smaller displays like PDA displays sans-serif fonts should produce the most legible output. Serifs tend to break up at small text sizes, resulting in poor legibility.
Or maybe you want to see a more
scientific approach to fonts.