Mail and changing default font (MessageFont, Universal Mailer, etc)

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Mail and changing default font (MessageFont, Universal Mailer, etc)

So now that we're on Mail 6 under OS X 10.8, are there any good options to set a default font for outgoing messages besides manually doing it for each individual message?

MessageFont was released late in the Snow Leopard era and worked reasonably well, but new messages / replies / forwards had to be created by keyboard shortcut, and Lion / Mountain Lion interfered with full functionality.

Universal Mailer is okay, but it requires that there be existing HTML elements to the outgoing message, and I can't figure out how to force it besides having an HTML signature since Mail will send in plaintext unless it absolutely has to use rich text despite saying "compose in rich text" in preferences. Then, when using HTML signatures, there is a discrepancy between font size of the signature and font size of the message.

Anyone thought of a solution for all this?

Posted on Aug 5, 2012 9:32 AM

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Answer 1

Dec 1, 2017 1:31 PM in response to exigence

There used to be a good way by setting your signature up because the signature font was sent. All you had to to was insert your message inside the signature. Apple, instead of fixing the problem and allowing you to customize the way the recipient saw the message by setting a default outgoing font, has removed the font information from your signature as well...

Now, the only way around this is still to manually set your font size, type, etc. for each email. Otherwise no font information is sent. Go to prefs, change your default fonts, see if the font changes for BCC'd messages or sent messages. Look though many emails, the emails where the font changes because you changed your fonts in prefs obviously don't have font info. Most, if not all other mail clients for MacOS X do not have this limitation. This has been a problem since the very first OS X Apple Mail client. Hard core Apple cult followers get angry if they can't control the font of incoming messages. They way they can tell the bad "non-Apple" people is by the non-conforming font used.

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Answer 2

T-pap

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Aug 14, 2012 6:26 AM in response to exigence

Go to preferences, fonts and colors, message font, then select font and size. It is that simple 😀

T-pap

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Answer 3

exigence Author

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22 points

Aug 14, 2012 6:51 AM in response to T-pap

Unfortunately, no, it's not. That setting changes the font for messages as YOU see them, but it does not modify the actual outgoing mail.

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Answer 4

T-pap

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Aug 14, 2012 8:12 AM in response to exigence

So much for the understanding of a newbie! Out of curiosity what is the default font that mail sends that others read?

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Answer 5

exigence Author

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22 points

Aug 14, 2012 2:52 PM in response to T-pap

Unless you manually use something requiring HTML formatting (bold, etc), Mail uses plaintext even if you specify "compose with rich text" in preferences.

In HTML, it's this biggish Times font, if I remember correctly.

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Answer 6

T-pap

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Aug 14, 2012 3:25 PM in response to exigence

Thanx for the information!

Don't want to drag this out too far...but, if an email message is sent using Arial or MS Trebuchet, which PC's most likely have in their font file, will the PC read message in plain text or Arial, MS Trebuchet? (no html used)

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Answer 7

exigence Author

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22 points

Aug 14, 2012 3:43 PM in response to T-pap

If you manually specify fonts or formatting on a per message basis, then that will work fine and will be sent just as you created it because you're effectively adding HTML in the form of "hey, make my message look like this." But the fonts/colors section of Mail's preferences doesn't do that, so if you set message font THERE to be Trebuchet, it will only look like that on your end. No formatting is added to the outgoing message, so it will be sent as plaintext.

This silliness is why third-party utilities like Universal Mailer and MessageFont exist(ed) -- to keep people who want to do something simple, like make all of their outgoing mail a small, black Tahoma font like Outlook Web Access does, from having to specify that each and every time they send an email.

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Answer 8

T-pap

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Aug 15, 2012 10:21 AM in response to exigence

Appreciate your explanations 😎

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Answer 9

Aug 21, 2012 10:31 AM in response to exigence

Have you tried using either MessageFont or Unviersal Mailer in Mountain Lion? I've tried both and neither appear to be working. I used them just fine in Snow Leopard, but with the upgrade to ML, they've both stopped working properly.

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Answer 10

exigence Author

Level 1

22 points

Aug 21, 2012 2:47 PM in response to Dwimmerlaik

Yes, partially.

I've used Universal Mailer, and it works as well as it ever did -- as long as you have an HTML element in the email, it'll do its thing. Also, his website explicitly lists compatibility with Mountain Lion.

I haven't yet tried MessageFont, but I remember there being some issues with Lion (MessageFont came out late in the Snow Leopard era, iirc). I was still able to use it with few issues under Lion but haven't yet tried w/ ML.

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Answer 11

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 21, 2012 2:58 PM in response to exigence

exigence wrote:

Unfortunately, no, it's not. That setting changes the font for messages as YOU see them, but it does not modify the actual outgoing mail.

That is the same for all mail clients, regardless of platform or operating system!

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Answer 12

exigence Author

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Aug 21, 2012 3:00 PM in response to Csound1

I remember making changes to the "default font" in Outlook on Windows and seeing appropriate changes in the font when viewing it in webmail. All clients have options to change fonts as seen by the user -- it's Mail.app that doesn't have an easy way to add formatting to newly-created messages like most other clients do.

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Answer 13

Csound1

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Aug 21, 2012 3:01 PM in response to exigence

Try again, you did not (unless the font chosen at one end happens to exist at the other)

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Answer 14

exigence Author

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Aug 21, 2012 3:04 PM in response to Csound1

When I was experimenting with this, I downloaded Thunderbird to compare. I made changes to TB's email composition options and looked at the message in webmail. I remember seeing corresponding changes to the messages viewed outside of TB.

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Answer 15

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 21, 2012 3:09 PM in response to exigence

exigence wrote:

When I was experimenting with this, I downloaded Thunderbird to compare. I made changes to TB's email composition options and looked at the message in webmail. I remember seeing corresponding changes to the messages viewed outside of TB.

Not in my experience, and by webmail are you referring to the server (Exchange/iCloud/Google) web version of the account you sent from? Or someone elses webmail?

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