Mail header/sig font changes size in replies

Any sort of formatting in an e-mail message is nothing more than a suggestion. The recipient, or anyone in between can change it around and redisplay it any way they want.

If you want, you can send me a sample e-mail and I can see if there are any hidden font changes or anything else that is wrong. Send the message to info at etresoft dot com.

I'm having the same problem. Apple tech support told me that it was a problem caused by the recipient's software when the recipient replies to my message. I am doubtful that is the case. When I was last in an Apple store for a One-to-One session, I asked the genius, who checked with other geniuses and none could provide a solution, other than to suggest that it was possibly caused by recipients using and replying with Outlook. I regard that answer as less than helpful so I am turning to the forum... Anyone have a solution? It is extremely unprofessional when my signature comes back in a significantly larger font.

I also have exactly same problem with header fonts when resending mails from Apple Mail app.
I actually asked the same question in this forum a couple of days ago ("wrong fonts when forwarding in Apple mail app").

Also went to see Genius in an Apple shop - he did not know and sent the question to Apple labs.

I did lots of 'testing' so I know that:

- the large header font appears only if the mail is received in browser based mail (Gmail, Yahoo..) or Outlook for Windows (it can be also in other mail agents which I did not try)

- the large fonts do not appear if the mail is open in Apple Mail - this is because Apple displays mails based on what fonts are set in Preferences (not based on coding of incoming mail) while browser mails and Outlook for Windows 'respect' senders fonts coding

- but if the mail is first received in browser/Outlook and then sent back to Apple Mail, the large fonts will appear in the previous mail

- I even sent a mail from Apple shop's computer and opened it in browser (Gmail).. exactly same problem.. so it's not that there is something wrong with my Mail settings

Actually getting quite desperate here... would really greatly appreciate your comments! Thanks.

hi etresoft, not sure if this question has been answered? thanks!

Have you tried setting the fonts and size manually before resending, by selecting the text and choosing something from the fonts panel? Make sure it is different than what is set in Mail > Preferences. Or doing Format > Make Plain Text before resending?

I tried many times to change all fonts in Preferences, but just to be sure I tried now again:

the previous mail's header font reacts to changing 'Message font' - when I change 'Message font' to something really small, e.g. 10, and I open the mail that I want to resend, the header of the previous mail changes into 10 straight away.
But after I send it out and receive in Gmail or Office for Win (this one on another machine) the header font is still large (same size as if I did not changed the Message font).

Now I also changed format into Plain Text - the fonts are different but the header of previous mail is large.

For comparison, I created and resent a mail in Yahoo and received in Yahoo and in Office and there is no prob.

Also I resent a mail from a display Mac in an Apple shop and opened it home in Gmail, Yahoo and Office and it has the same problem (no problem when opened in Apple Mail though... )

I tried many times to change all fonts in Preferences, but just to be sure I tried now again:

Mail Preferences do affect what is seen at the other end. You have to set fonts manually before you send by selecting the text and using the font menu. Also the font you select should be different than what is set in Mail Preferences.

Thanks... interesting - I changed fonts of the message and previous mail's 'From' header and both, the new tex and the previous header displayed fine when received in browser mails (it displayed in whatever fonts I manually set).

It did not work only if I manually set the font into Helv 12 which is the same as in my Preferences.

Can you say where the problem is? Is it somewhere in my settings?
Or my Mail does not send the font coding right? Well, the fonts of new mail's text do display as preset in Preferences, it's just the header of the previous mail displays too large..

Message was edited by: mark888

Can you say where the problem is? Is it somewhere in my settings?

No, I think the problem is that Mail doesn't behave the way you want it to unless to go through the manual font setting routine as described. Some users choose to switch to Entourage/Outlook or Thunderbird to escape these bugs.

Before I realised that there was a problem I bought Office home edition, w/out Outlook - I'm new to Apple and wanted to use as much of the Apple stuff as possible. But yes, will probably have to buy Office, Business edition with Outlook.. those headers when resent in Mail don't look good at all.

I wonder if there are many more Apple Mail users who don't realise the problem as they sent and receive mails in Mail so they cannot see how it displays when their mails are received e.g. in web-mails or in Office for Win.
As I said, I re-sent mails from two different display Macbook Pros in Apple shop into my private address and they both displayed the very large previous mail headers. But maybe it's because they changed the massage font into Helv 16 in all Apple computers in the shop (so people don't complain about too small fonts when writing mail). I think the factory preset is Helv 12.

Anyway, thanks for your comments.

Hi TomRose1971,

I have exactly same header font problem. Have you ended up with a solution?
I agree with you, it's like written by a 3rd grader.. Thanks.

I have had this problem since the beginning. Started with Mail, then I moved to Entourage and recently bought Outlook - all with the same problem. I have to set fonts at 14 so that they show up at 11 on anyone else's computer. I took it to the Genius Bar and they didn't have an answer but suspected because it was the same problem in a variety of programs - so they though it was some kind of system problem. We then created a new administrator account on the MAC (not just in the mail application) and then sent another email and the error went away. So the tip from the Genius Bar for me is basically to migrate everything over to this new user account except for preference and library files. Since this is a lot of work, i am still hoping for a better solution. It must be some corrupted preferences file setting, or something.

We are having a similar issue.
And it goes so far in that in a reply email the fonts can change halfway through an emailed return as well.

Come on Apple, what is the real story here. We really need a fix for this NOW!