Tukifontti

Tukifontti is a Finnish term for a fallback font used in typography and web design. It refers to a font chosen to be used if the primary typeface cannot be loaded or is unavailable on a user’s device. In practice, designers specify a font-family stack in CSS, listing the preferred font first and the tukifontit in order of priority. The browser selects the first available font in the list and, if none are available, falls back to a generic family such as sans-serif, serif, or monospace. This mechanism helps maintain legibility and layout stability across different devices and platforms.

A good tukifontti selection considers character coverage (including Finnish characters ä, ö, å), similar metrics to the primary font to avoid large layout shifts, and licensing if web fonts are used. Common choices include widely installed system fonts such as Segoe UI, Arial, Verdana, and Tahoma, as well as widely used web fonts like Roboto or Noto Sans. When using @font-face or remote fonts, the tukifonttilista should still be robust if the custom font fails to load, preventing invisible text or garbled layouts.

Common pitfalls include inconsistent kerning or x-height differences between fonts, and performance impacts from loading multiple fonts. Testing across platforms (Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android) helps ensure consistent rendering. See also font-family, web fonts, and font loading strategies.