# Thumbnailer font list: wanted: 900 sans-serif

**URL:** <https://talk.observablehq.com/t/thumbnailer-font-list-wanted-900-sans-serif/5441>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [August 10, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/thumbnailer-font-list-wanted-900-sans-serif/5441 "2021-08-10T18:24:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Martien](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/martien/32/470_2.png) [@Martien](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/Martien)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 6:24pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/thumbnailer-font-list-wanted-900-sans-serif/5441/1 "2021-08-10T18:24:10Z")

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How can I find out about the available fonts on the thumbnail daemon?

Looking for a Black (font-weight: 900) sans-serif.

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**Author:** ![mootari](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mootari/32/581_2.png) [@mootari](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mootari)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 7:25pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/thumbnailer-font-list-wanted-900-sans-serif/5441/2 "2021-08-10T19:25:57Z")

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Can you elaborate why want to use the thumbnailer’s system fonts instead of including a web font (or just setting a custom thumbnail)?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Martien](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/martien/32/470_2.png) [@Martien](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/Martien)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/thumbnailer-font-list-wanted-900-sans-serif/5441/3 "2021-08-10T19:35:31Z")

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Hi. Well, I want to have the thumbnailer create a ‘billboard’ that looks as similar as possible to the one created in my default browsers on my Mac, responsively. So aspect ratio is also adapted. Defaults to 16:9 and switches to 16:10 on thumbnailer.

In my browser, I have Avenir Next (Black) and Arial Black. Looking for a similar Black font on thumbnailer.

I try to avoid loading a (Google) font for now.

Never have been able to dynamically obtain a browser fontlist.

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**Author:** ![mootari](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mootari/32/581_2.png) [@mootari](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mootari)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 9:30pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/thumbnailer-font-list-wanted-900-sans-serif/5441/4 "2021-08-10T21:30:23Z")

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> [@Martien](#):
>
> Well, I want to have the thumbnailer create a ‘billboard’ that looks as similar as possible to the one created in my default browsers on my Mac, responsively. So aspect ratio is also adapted. Defaults to 16:9 and switches to 16:10 on thumbnailer.

I really recommend to create a custom helper for this, if you want full control over the design. You can wrap your CSS and markup inside an SVG foreignObject and render that to a canvas. Then you only need to right click the canvas and paste it as a custom thumbnail.

> [@Martien](#):
>
> I try to avoid loading a (Google) font for now.

You’re loading one every time you open a notebook. 😉

> [@Martien](#):
>
> Never have been able to dynamically obtain a browser fontlist.

That’s by design. You can only probe for fonts by changing a font and measuring changes in text dimensions, but there’s no way to obtain a list of fonts.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mootari](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/mootari/32/581_2.png) [@mootari](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/mootari)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 9:41pm UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/thumbnailer-font-list-wanted-900-sans-serif/5441/5 "2021-08-10T21:41:44Z")

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… for what it’s worth, here’s the info from `window.navigator` for the thumbnailer:

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/observablehq/original/2X/9/946c520eeb69e5465ae2322d9325aa91026c6936.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Martien](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.observablehq.com/martien/32/470_2.png) [@Martien](https://talk.observablehq.com/u/Martien)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 2021, 6:21am UTC](https://talk.observablehq.com/t/thumbnailer-font-list-wanted-900-sans-serif/5441/6 "2021-08-11T06:21:56Z")

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Thanks for your replies.

I’ll be picking a Google font then. Seems the easiest way to get max consistency in appearance across platforms.