Ever wondered why a font in your email campaign looks different once it lands in your inbox? This is actually a common issue. But why?
The answer is because HTML email has limitations.
When it comes to fonts, some are universal. That is to say, they will render the same virtually anywhere you see them: online, your inbox, your mobile device, etc.
However, many fonts — especially those that are less common or custom— will not render properly unless the person reading has the same fonts installed on their computer. That means if you’re sending an email to hundreds or thousands of people, and they don’t all have those same fonts installed, a default font like Times New Roman or Arial will show instead.
So yeah, that super cool custom font you had made of your handwriting? Chances are it’s going to look like Arial to everyone else.
Best Bets for Universal Font Use in Email
Which fonts will display universally in your email campaigns? Here’s a handy list:
Sans Serif Fonts
- Arial
- Arial Black
- Tahoma
- Trebuchet MS
- Verdana
These fonts are also mostly universal, but a shade less so than those listed above.
- Century Gothic
- Geneva
- Lucida
- Lucida Sans
- Lucida Grande
Serif Fonts
- Courier
- Courier New
- Georgia
- Times
- Times New Roman
These fonts are also mostly universal, but a shade less so than those listed above.
- MS Serif
- New York
- Palatino
- Palatino Linotype
Here’s a list of all widely-supported cross-platform fonts:
- Arial
- Arial Black
- Book Antiqua
- Charcoal
- Comic Sans
- Courier New
- Geneva
- Georgia
- Helvetica
- Impact
- Lucida Console
- Lucida Sans Unicode
- Lucida Grande
- Monaco
- Palatino Linotype
- Palatino
- Tahoma
- Times
- Times New Roman
- Trebuchet MS
- Verdana
What About Web Fonts?
They’re awesome! Web Fonts, for the most part, are specifically designed to be used on websites and mobile apps. Oftentimes you must download and/or buy these fonts in order to use them. You can use them in Robly (we have a few in our editor), just know that they are supported by a surprisingly low number of inbox providers:
- Outlook 2000
- Outlook.com app
- iOS Mail
- Apple Mail
- Native Android mail app
- Thunderbird
For more detailed information about web fonts, check out Litmus’s guide.