Best Professional Email Font: Ultimate Guide
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Not all fonts are created equal.
In fact, if you want your emails to succeed, there are some fonts you should stick to (and some to stay away from!)
Find out how to select a professional email font for your email marketing, and why this is so important. In this guide, you’ll learn how to choose email-safe fonts, how to ensure your font renders well in all email clients, and more best-practice tips to help you choose your font wisely.
Email-safe fonts are a collection of typefaces, or styles of text displayed on a screen, that are supported across the majority of email clients.
These fonts are widely available across different operating systems, devices and email clients.
That means you can use them in your emails to be sure they will load quickly and consistently in your recipients’ inboxes. You don’t need to worry about whether recipients open your emails on Gmail or Outlook, or on an iPhone or Android device.
In almost every case, you can be sure these fonts will display as intended. This is especially important for email clients that are accessed via a desktop application, rather than a web browser, such as Outlook and Apple Mail.
That’s because those clients only render certain fonts. If the client comes across a font it doesn’t support, it will replace that font, which could alter your email’s design and message.
Using email-safe fonts helps you maintain a consistent look and feel for your messages, improves readability, and avoid default substitutions.
Just keep in mind that even the best fonts for email aren’t completely foolproof. There’s still a small chance of inconsistencies in how they’re displayed, but they’re safer than other options, and are the recommended choice when you create emails.
In 2023, the US State Department announced it was ditching Times New Roman, the font it had used for almost 20 years, and switching to the plainer Calibri font.
This might seem like an insignificant announcement, but using a professional email font is super important.
That’s because the right font:
Not sure what font to choose? An email builder can take away the guesswork. It’s a drag-and-drop tool packed with email templates for your internal or external comms.
Not only do these templates come pre-loaded with email-safe fonts, but they follow all other email design best practices. Put simply, email builders take care of your email design, freeing up your time to focus on creating the content that matters.
You probably spend a lot of time thinking about your email’s layout, color scheme and images. But how much thought do you give to the font?
Since a professional email font is a non-negotiable in modern email marketing, here are 4 rules to stick to.
This rule is generally accepted across both email and web design.
Choose one or two fonts max for each email, as too many fonts make emails appear messy and complicated.
The best approach is to choose one font and simply dial the font size up or down for headings and body copy.
“Font styles” describe bold, italic or underlined font.
When used with consideration, this technique is great for highlighting important phrases, quotes or links.
Try not to overdo the font styles, as this can not only impact the accessibility and readability of your emails, but more often than not with design, less is more, and you can lose impact and engagement.
Email accessibility is all about ensuring your emails can be read (or accessed) by all recipients, including those with a disability.
Aim to follow accessibility guidelines when choosing a font. We cover this in more detail later in the guide.
It’s easier and more enjoyable to read clear, legible font.
One experiment found that it takes almost twice as long to read italic and decorative fonts than regular ones. Your readers are in a hurry; they’ll appreciate you making things easier for them.
Pro Tip: An email builder could be your marketing team’s secret weapon in helping you nail this! Design emails quickly and easily, with hundreds of professional templates to get you started.
These pre-made, fully customizable, professional templates are all designed for readability, accessibility and engagement, so all contain the best fonts for email. Of course, if your brand has its own approved fonts, you can easily upload them to any template, for instantly on-brand emails.
Before you start a newsletter or send any professional email, let’s cover 10 popular email-safe fonts. You can use these with confidence they will render correctly in every recipient’s inbox.
The Arial email font was designed in 1982.
It’s a classic, simple and elegant font, with soft curves that help create a more relaxed vibe. The font is easy to read and suits many styles of graphic design.
A definite favorite in modern digital marketing.
Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface, meaning it doesn’t have decorative small lines at the end of each symbol.
It was designed in 1957 and is still used today. Its eye-catching design makes it popular for titles and headings but since the letters are closely spaced, it’s not always a great option for long-form text.
This font is a long-time favorite among web designers.
Its narrow letter design makes it suitable for most email headings, but it can slow down reading peace when used in body copy.
Verdana is a simple font that was created for low-resolution screens.
It has wide letters and simple, bold lines which make it easy to read in email copy.
This is a monospaced font which became the standard used for screenwriting in the film industry and is quite email-safe.
The font family’s newest addition, Courier New, has heavier dots and commas than the original.
Tahoma is similar to Verdana but has narrower letters and tighter spacing.
Introduced by Microsoft, it is helpful when you need to add text to graphic designs or small spaces, without cramping the visuals.
Georgia’s components, or “strokes”, are heavier than average fonts.
This, and its widely spaced characters, are good for easy reading, especially for long-form emails.
The Palatino font was originally designed for headings and printed advertisements.
In digital mediums (like email) its considerable width makes it a good choice for headers and titles.
Oswald is another sans-serif font, inspired by 19th-century styles of text.
Despite its classic origins, its clean and slightly elongated style makes it a winning choice for modern mediums like email.
Poppins finds the balance between professional and fun. It has a clean, simple look that makes it super versatile - Poppins is a good choice for headings, subheadings and paragraph text.
There’s no single “best” font for email newsletters, since recommendations change between languages because of different language features. Plus, the type of email or purpose of the text matters: one font might be great for headings but not so great for paragraphs.
However, it’s worth looking at the most popular fonts to guide you in the right direction.
When you design an email, you’ll usually have limited space for text, as images and other multimedia take center stage. For that reason, use streamlined, simple typefaces that look good in small spaces.
Some popular fonts for email newsletters are:
An email builder can help you create beautiful and professional emails in minutes. These emails are optimized for engagement to help improve the success of your email marketing campaigns.
Plus, you can monitor the performance of your emails. Good email builders let you track metrics like open rate and click-through rate, even if you send your emails from Gmail, Outlook or another email service provider (ESP).
This means you can test what works - from designs to CTAs to fonts - and continually improve your emails.
Let’s talk about some email design best practices, with a focus on making good choices with your email font design.
Your font isn’t there to entertain. It’s there to make your emails as readable as possible.
While creativity is great for your brand, opt for simplicity when it comes to selecting a font. Prioritize the user experience as this strengthens your brand and boosts engagement.
Line spacing describes the vertical distance between lines of text.
It matters because lines that are very close together can be hard to read, while lines that are far apart can make a piece of copy look wordier than it really is.
The best line spacing for emails is usually single or 1.5 spacing, and good email builders will support you in adding this to your paragraphs.
Banners in emails give you a chance to highlight something important, like a sale or promotion.
They’re also an opportunity to use a decorative font that you wouldn’t use in the main body of an email.
However, it’s still important that this text is legible, and think about contrasting the copy against the banner! Some colors blend into each other (i.e. they lack contrast) which makes the text difficult to read.
It can be tempting to stuff your whole email inside an image, so you know all fonts will show up correctly.
However, sending image-only emails isn’t recommended. It might cause your email to load slowly, trigger accessibility issues for visually impaired recipients, and be unviewable for anyone who has turned off images.
Instead, use an email builder, where templates and elements (such as headers, footers and CTA banners) are created with HTML-optimized and tested code. All fonts pre-loaded in an email builder are also selected to look good across screens, devices and email clients.
That means you can be free to get creative, without worrying whether your email will look consistent for all your readers.
It’s important to consider accessibility with every email you send. This ensures people who are color blind, dyslexic or visually impaired don’t miss out on your messages. However, it’s also important for readers who are simply in a rush, and ask Siri or another digital assistant to read their emails.
To make your emails more accessible, follow these guidelines:
A clear, professional email font can really make your emails “pop”.
But what’s the best font size for email?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but a safe bet is somewhere between 10 points and 16 points.
Too-large text dominates space and can become overwhelming. If your typeface is too small, readers will have to zoom or squint to read it. In some cases, they might skip the email altogether.
Remember that sizes vary between fonts, so a font size of 12 could look different for one font compared to another.
The only hard rule is that headings should be written in a larger font than the body copy. Other than that, you can experiment with font size for the best results.
Your email signature is there to build trust and potentially give customers other ways to contact you, from providing your address to linking to your Instagram profile.
Professional email fonts are always the best option.
With that in mind, the best fonts for email signatures are:
Email fonts are an often overlooked aspect of email design. But, as you can see, they’re critical for professionalism, engagement and accessibility.
For the best results from your emails, opt for a professional email font listed in this guide. Use an email builder to help you get creative with designs, knowing all fonts and elements will render beautifully across every device and email client, plus it saves you time and money with designers, coders and approval flows.
