Font in Mail in OS 26 changed, new selection doesn't "stick"

After digging around some more, it seems that I had some really old versions of Helvetica that Font Book (and the system) intermingled with the really basic Helvetica Apple ships. Removing these old variants completely (not just deactivating them) fixed the font in my e-mail programs.

I still say the underlying problem is Tahoe’s fault, as this wasn’t a problem under previous versions of macOS, but you may want to look at your Font Book to see if your “Helvetica” font mixes the six styles Apple ships with others (such as from Adobe).

This is a common issue with some Tahoe users. Apple won't see this in this user-to-user forums setting. Please use this feedback link to place these concerns before an Apple employee:

Feedback - Mail - Apple

We know from past issues that enough "hits" through feedback will effect change.

FYI: I saw something similar with Tahoe because I use Verdana 13 for all emails. I found that as soon as I start to type the message, the new default shown in the font window changed to Verdana.

Resetting Verdana several times from Mail > Settings > Fonts & Colors eventually stopped that behavior.

The deactivation of some fonts using Font Book has sometimes worked for users in other similar Tahoe threads.

However, as this is a common Tahoe complaint and, as Apple won't see or respond to bug reports here, I recommend you take advantage of this feedback link, which an Apple employee will see:

Feedback - Mail - Apple

Switching to a different font (I switched to Helvetica Neue instead) seems to have worked for me for now at least.

It seems that Tahoe is rendering “Helvetica” in the condensed variant regardless of what the user selects. Incoming messages in Mail and other e-mail applications that refer to Helvetica in their style sheets get rendered in Helvetica Condensed without regard for my actual font selections in the individual applications.

Let’s hope Apple fixes this quickly, because it is a really unreadable font for most messaging!

Hy,

it seems like the same problem I have.

But the emails I get, show the "HELVETICA CYRILLIC" Font. -try to read it. impossible!

...and when I change the Fonts...nothing changes with this problem.

I dont understand how this can happen.