Fonts in emails do not display as set in Mail when viewed in other programmes (Outlook and Gmail tested)

Hello,


I have MacOS Big Sur v11.4, Mail for Mac v.14 and Outlook for Mac v16.50.


I yesterday swapped from Outlook app to Mac app, as I find the former too slow and sluggish. However, I discovered that other mail readers (tested with Outlook and Gmail) display the mail fonts and sizes, including the signature text, incorrectly i.e. they are set and displayed in the Mail app as Times New Roman Size 13, but are viewed in Outlook or Gmail differently (seemingly Arial and completely different size).


This basically means I can't use Mail for Mac, as I need to be sure that the emails display as required, not how other readers decide to display them as.


Is there a solution or will this be fixed in the next Mail update?


Thanks in advance for any advice.

MacBook, macOS 11.4

Posted on Jun 23, 2021 3:55 AM

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6 replies

Jun 24, 2021 5:26 AM in response to PhilB_

PhilB_ wrote:

I also think it's reasonable to expect that the receiver of the email views the formatting (e.g. font type and size) as the sender intends.

The other side of that is the recipient thinking it's reasonable that he should see messages in the font and size which is best for him.


Apple does let you set the font and size to be seen by the recipient, but it has to be done in the new message pane for each outgoing email individually. They have never provided a way to set the outgoing email font by default, despite many requests by users who want to be able to do that. You can add your voice to this via


http://www.apple.com/feedback


My impression is that most users find Outlook is the mail app which best meets the need to set such outgoing font defaults. (It happens that Outlook also lets the recipient totally ignore what senders do by choosing to display only plain text. Apple Mail does not have that feature, it always displays rich text if it is present.)

Jun 23, 2021 4:14 AM in response to PhilB_

By Default the Apple Mail Application using the " Rich Text " and can be changed to " Plain Text " and be changes to " Text Type". There is also the option in Apple Mail to " Respond using the same message format as Original ". Both the the afore mention are in Mail >> Preferences >> Compose


As for Other Mail Clients, like Outlook and others, how they render on the Receiver side is beyond the control of Apple.

Jun 24, 2021 4:42 AM in response to PhilB_

Then, for your purposes and specifically the Font size, type of Font etc asa this appear to more important than content - Perhaps it is better to perform the message and Export as PDF and attach the PDF to message. That will give much more control over the aspects so highly sought after.


That or, as mentioned - us another e-mail Client that preforms as desired.

Jun 24, 2021 4:34 AM in response to Owl-53

Hi - thank you for your reply. This doesn't really solve the issue though.


Rich Text emails (i.e. with different fonts, sizes, colours etc.) are a basic requirement of an email (even if just for the email signature alone), therefore Plain Text is an option in limited circumstances in my opinion.


I also think it's reasonable to expect that the receiver of the email views the formatting (e.g. font type and size) as the sender intends. This is not the case with Apple Mail (unless I am missing something?), however works fine with other programmes (Outlook, Gmail, Spark...).

Jun 24, 2021 4:48 AM in response to PhilB_

I also think it's reasonable to expect that the receiver of the email views the formatting (e.g. font type and size) as the sender intends.

You may think it is reasonable to assume that, but there is absolutely nothing in the email protocol that requires it. Email is a text only protocol. Any type of formatting is provided through hints that email client can choose to implement or ignore. Even then, the formatting is not required to be interpreted in any specific way.

Fortunately, Apple requires you to make an positive change to the formatting when composing in order for Mail to include those formatting hints thus limiting the amount useless and unreadable formatting to which we might be subjected.

If you must subject your recipients to your favorite fonts and colors, change them each time you compose a message.

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Fonts in emails do not display as set in Mail when viewed in other programmes (Outlook and Gmail tested)

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