Apple mail font changes with mail encoding

Apple mail will change the font automatically with the encoding of the message.

This might not be shown on Apple Mail, but it does when recieved in Microsoft Ouotlook / Windows.

When I send in Western Latin 1. font is Calibri

Switch the mail encoding to UTF-8, Font becomes Times new roman.

if mail encoding is DBCS like Big-5, it start to switch the big-5 default font on Windows and it's ugly.

This is serious, the change of fonts is very unprofessional.

And we can't ask everyone in the world ot switch to Apple mail, most of working system are still in Outlook...

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)

Posted on Jun 29, 2013 3:37 AM

20 replies

Jul 16, 2013 10:21 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom Gewecke wrote:

basssplayer wrote:

as you'll see, some of the text (in italics) is in Verdana (in this case the first two lines), and some (in bold) isn't specified, and appears in whatever default font I choose. (I've added line breaks for clarity.)

Thanks! That is indeed strange and something new for me, I don't know what would cause the Verdana signal to be left out of that one particular span when it is in all the others...

Yes, particularly annoying, as it makes the email appear in different fonts to the receiver, which obviously looks completely unprofessional.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jul 16, 2013 10:54 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom Gewecke wrote:

Are you confusing "plain text" with something else? It just means "not html". Every font in existence can be used to display plain text.

That's a duhhh, I confused it with Fixed Width fonts.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jul 16, 2013 11:01 AM in response to basssplayer

Now that the clouds are clearing, the raw source view of the mail as sent by Mail reveals no font info at all.

The mail from Outlook does have font information, it is Arial, (not Times as Outlook is set), the Mac does not have Arial and Helvetica is a common substitute.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jul 16, 2013 11:02 AM in response to basssplayer

basssplayer wrote:

Csound1 wrote:

Other way around (sent from Outlook using Times) I get Helvetica (Outlook in HTML mode)

I tried this from Outlook to Mail: sending using Times 48 resulted in receiving in Times 48.

Check my post for the why.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jul 16, 2013 11:05 AM in response to Csound1

Tried Outlook to mail again, reset and verified that Times was being sent, font info was present in the source and displayed correctly in mail.

Ignore my earlier posts 😊

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Apple mail font changes with mail encoding