“There are only a handful of fonts that you can guarantee to be available across all common systems — the so-called Web-safe fonts.”
~ MDN
The list of fonts that are reliably available across systems, so-called “web safe” fonts, is small. The subset of those that look really good is even smaller.
Consequently, those with sharp eyes for design will often design their website to use a custom font. This gets them a beautiful font and assures visual consistency across devices. It comes at the cost of a slightly larger page, and an extra HTTP request.
This gripe is miniscule, even in the context of website bloat, but what a utopia we could live in if we had more beautiful fonts to choose from without making our pages slower.
