Best Fonts for Emails: 51 Types and Tips to Use in Marketing

In email marketing, you likely invest your time and effort to make the email design perfect. But what about the font? Choosing the right font is not that hard, but it does need some consideration.

Using the wrong font can make the email copy unreadable and give a bad impression of your brand.

Typography plays a vital role in the look and feel of the email. It’s a powerful tool for capturing and holding the reader’s attention.

With this quick guide, you can understand different font families and styles and how to use them in your email marketing.

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What To Know About Fonts?

Back when the internet was in its early stage, the web was filled with extremely basic fonts, which made marketers and designers cringe.

Since they were forced to use them, a handful of web-safe fonts were available then.

But as the world developed, new fonts came into the market, including web fonts.

Well, web fonts and webspace fonts are two different things; web safe is a font that you might be using in the mail; it includes :

Arial
Verdena
Time New Roman
Courier
Georgia

All these web space fonts are used for the email’s live text. They are the default fonts that are highly used in different devices, operating and computers.

As for who is using the safe font, because it’s classic, looks clean, and also offers to render much better, some of the brands you can notice using the fonts include:

American Apparel
Jeep
Crate & Barrel
Nestle
Toyota
Time
Target
Panasonic
Mattle
JCPenney

The next includes Web fonts, which are not easily found on multiple operating systems and devices.

They are specifically designed and licensed to use in the west. Because of these, you get much more creative.

Why Fonts Matters In Your Email Marketing?

Fonts are an important aspect when you are designing your email marketing. If your emails are written in an easy-to-read font, the readers can read exactly what it is and understand the message without any mistakes and disturbance.

But if there are fonts that are hard to read, not supported by the email service provider, or too spaced or consistent, this can cause an issue in readability and even get you flagged and spam.

The font you choose for email marketing can make or break the success of your email campaign.

There are changes if 70% of readers will simply delete the email within 3 seconds if it’s not formatted or displayed properly.

Fonts are important as it affects the overall mood of email. Just like the colors, the font also shows personality and characteristics.

If your email is for raising funds for earthquake survivors, and you choose a font like Comic Sans MS, well, it won’t give the impression that you are not a credible source.

Brands maintain their persona and values through what fonts they use.

What Elements To Consider For Choosing Email Font?

To choose the right font for your email marketing, you also need to consider elements that play an important role.

Well to know what you should be careful about, here are some of the points of elements for you :

Company’s Branding

When choosing the font, you need to consider the company’s branding.

Typography is crucial to the brand image and impression you want to create in front of contacts.

Here you want to choose fonts that accurately reflect the brand voice and aesthetic and hold the right amount of professionalism.

Eleven though it’s a font, still it’s a big deal. The right choice in the font can be important for your brand image because it can convey the meaning correctly.

Sticking to one or a few fonts for your email emails can help better communicate, familiar and professional for the customers and subscribers.

For example, If your brand tone is formal and serious, then your font should be no novelty. If your brand tone is friendly and playful, then you can experiment with a custom font that can be an ideal case.

Readability & Legibility

The next important element you should pay attention to is its readability and legibility.

When you choose a font, make sure it suits for scanning and skimming on screens regardless of the size, it can be desktop, mobile, tablet, or device.

Your subscriber inboxes are flooded with tons of email marketing content. So if you are choosing the typeface for email, make sure you are not choosing something which is an effort to read.

Also, you should take legibility and readability as the main consideration for making sure when you choose the right email font.

You also need to stay away from email font, which is overlay ornate. Such fonts are difficult to read, and it can cause issues while displaying as some email clients don’t support certain kinds of fonts.

It’s best to avoid using cursive and italicized fonts as they are hard to read on mobile devices.

Neutrality

The best email fonts are those that are neutral and easy to blend harmoniously with other aspects of the content.

After all, you don’t abt to draw attention away from your CTA or buttons which are important in your email.

The right font should be able to match the image of your brand, but it should not draw too much attention to itself.

Here readers don’t have that much time to invest in thinking deeply about business email typography.

The font you are going to choose should not be remarkable. Instead, it should leave a positive impression which should be unconscious regarding the brand.

What To Know About Email Font Families And Font Styles?

Before you move forward, you should be aware of the different font families and styles that you can get.

This helps in knowing which font suits your email more and what can be ideal for making a great impression.

It includes :

Serif And Sans – Serif Fonts

These two basic font styles that you get are serif and sans serif. Here serif means that you will notice a little tail to each letter’s end. Sans serif means letters without a tail.

Web Safe Fonts

The family of fonts is known as standard fonts or cross-platform fonts. These are those fonts that are recognized across the globe by all device and email providers.

Because of this, they are also referred to as email-safe fonts.

These are some pros you get if you use web-safe fonts.

It’s Easy To Access

A web-safe font is the safest bet if you can get it, especially when you want that email font to appear exactly as you intended in the subscriber inboxes.

It’s the type of fonts that are widely supported regardless of what device and email clients your subscribers are using.

Much Faster To Load

Using email-safe fonts helps your email to load much faster. The reason is these fonts are already in the operating system, and it’s available which makes it easy to load as well as takes less time.

However, there are some cons too; here is what to know

The selection here you get is much more limited, and it’s used in large numbers across the website and marketing emails.
This also doesn’t give you any room to be original and creative.
Also, there is a high chance that you don’t see these fonts embracing the spirit of your business completely.

Web Fonts

Web Fonts are designed and licensed specifically for website use, including Google Sans and Roboto.

While you can see the common use of these web fonts in website design, the web font can be a bit experimental regarding HTML email.

Here the intended font only displays in receipt email if these fonts are compatible with what email service provider they are using.

However, web fonts are a great option if you know the recipient’s email providers.

If it’s incompatible, the recipient will see what is in their default or fallback font.

Well, one way that you can get around is to use it in the image, but don’t send emails that are image only.

When you are sending emails composed completely of an image, this can cause problems as it takes too long to load and can be inaccessible for screen readers.

So you can consider using this for small pieces of text, avoiding the images large in size with too many pixels.

When you are using the font, it comes with creatine pros. it includes :

Here you get a large variety as compared to web-safe fonts, which gives you much more to be experimental and creative in email. You can also get the flexibility of choosing an attractive font that is on-brand, showing the personality, and also adding a much better brand experience.

But with pros, you should pay attention to its cons too; it includes:

It’s not accepted that easily; many email service providers don’t support fonts. You can get certain email providers like iOS Mail, Apple Mail, Outlook app, and Google Android. However, it’s not in the Gmail app.
Web fonts are now becoming famous, but it’s not suitable when it comes to bulk email campaigns until all email providers recognize them.

Monospace Fonts

Monospace fonts are essentially typewriter fonts. The letter, as well as the character, takes the same amount of horizontal space.

The pros you get are great if you want to add a minimalistic feel to your email.

However, some of the cons that you can consider are

It takes a lot of space as it has a fixed character width; it’s not suitable if you are going for long passages or blocks of text because of the space. The characteristics blend together, which makes it harder to read.
All email providers do not support monospace fonts, so if you are serious about using Thai fonts, make sure you adjust the line space to your body copy so it can read easily.

List Of Best Email Fonts To Use For The Campaign

The right front family can help you in boosting success and increase satisfaction; this is not just good for your readers but email marketing as well.

Certain typeface fonts are proven and considered the best choices if you are going for email.

Here is the list of fonts that you should consider for your email.

Ariel
Georgia
Helvetica
Tahoma
Times New Roman
Open Sans
Roboto
Raleway
Lato
Oswald
Lucida
PT Serif

Arial

Initially, the Arial font was designed for IBM laser printers. However, it’s now used in digital and print media.

There are some obvious reasons why aria is considered the popular and ideal choice. Patricia Saunders And Robin Nicholas in 1982 created the font.

The font is not just modest but a simple and versatile type that can be used for all purpose and intent, including emails.

When you are using Arial, it helps stand out much more prominently but also makes it highly readable; this helps in becoming the favorite of the web content.

Verdana

The next one is the Verdana font which is named after the daughter of its designer. It’s a combination of verdant and ana.

Also, you can consider this font as its one of the best fonts for email when it comes to high readability and simplicity.

The makers adore the use of the font because each letter is easy to distinguish and helps in increasing the legibility of the overall font.

For example, if the Verdana’s lowercase letters are taller than others. This helps people of all ages to read emails easily.

Georgia

One of the members of the Serif Font family, it has little curls and edges at the end of each letter.

In 1993, Microsoft was designed, which was inspired by the typeface of Scotch – roman.

The font is even found in novels and newspapers; it was long before it started to be used in mail design. Since it has wide space between letters, it makes an ideal option if you are considering email marketing campaigns.

Helvetica

A lot of email marketers prefer Helvetica for use to improve their email marketing.

The reason is that the font is bold and modern in style.

According to marketers’ ranking, Helvetica is one of the highest fonts from the Sans Serif family.

A Swiss designer creates the font; it’s a popular font in companies, including BMW.

However, if you are using Google Word or Microsoft, you might not get this font, but it’s available for Facebook users.

Tahoma

A Lot of people are not aware of the fact that Tahoma font is designed for inexplicable on-screen users.

Tahoma offers high legibility and clarity, which became the font popularly supported by most of email client providers.

Mattew Carter, who designed this font, he created font time which has the same length to its upper as well as lower case letters.

Time New Roman

The Time newsletter was the inspiration behind creating this font. Because of this, Times New Roman is one of the highly popular fonts.

It is known for being a classic, traditional and authoritative typeface; this font is mostly used for official documents and headers.

To the traditional look, Time new roman gives a traditional look for the print and on screen.

Open Sans

The font was commissioned and introduced in 2010. It was specially designed, keeping digital content in consideration.

Now you can also get the new email copy using this font, as it gives the familiar appearance.

The font is highly used in the web interface as it works great for email, but it’s also used in print and mobile.

Open sans became the trending font style, primarily used for the conversation heading and times.

Roboto

This one is specially developed for screen displays in 2020; one of the latest induction is Roboto.

It comes with simple curves, which makes the font an adequate font that goes well with email.

The geometric style resembles the robotic version, but it’s modern and user-friendly, which makes the font highly appealing to the audience.

Raleway

One of the highly elegant members of the Sans Serif typeface, Raleway, is designed by Matt McAnarney.

The font has weight, thin and single, which makes the language much easier to read, similar to Verdana and Arial.

But it does carry much more personality than classic font offers. Raleway is for display users, and it can be easily paired up with Open Sans and Roboto in an email text body.

Lato

Lato is derived from polish, which means Summer, and it’s one of the email fonts you can consider for displaying the copies included in descriptions and offers.

Lato font in your email copies can be a great font as it makes it easier to understand. The font is rounded and has a simple design in letterforms.

You can consider using this fit for the collegial and CTA headings to make sure your messages are across to readers for providing clarity.

Oswald

Oswald is from Sans Serif Typeface; Vernon Adams design the font. This font type takes root from its classic gothic and grotesque styles from the late 19th century.

The font is clean and can be slightly elongated, making the typography combination well for the logs and website.

Lucida

Lucida is a wide cellar style that comes with distinct letterforms; this belongs to the sans font family.

Here the letters are spaced widely, making it easy to read and understand compared to other styles in fonts.

Lucida has taller characters, adds legibility charm, and works ideally for the on-screen document and print media, along with the website.

PT Serif

The font size of the PT serif is measured in points or abbreviated pt; hence, it’s the font’s name.

It’s a serif font that is paired with other font styles such as Roboto, eina and Poppins, etc.

The style is highly used in food, decorative, magnet, agencies, and blogs.

It’s new to the game, but it’s doing quite amazing in different marketing campaigns.

What Are The Worst Font For Email Marketing?

Well, there is no such thing as the worst font, but it’s time to think again.

There are some fonts that are a big no-no to email marketing. Even though it’s fun, you should avoid using it in your email marketing.

Using these fonts can cost you a potential buyer and conversion in email marketing, and to know what font you should avoid, here is what you need:

Comic Sans MS

Comic Sans MS is a fun font; however, if there is no one’s birthday and you are not sending an invitation to the kid’s party, this font is required to avoid all costs.

No readers want to see the email in comics sans MS, and it gives the wrong an immature nature of the brand.

The handwriting style is considered unprofessional, affecting the lack of brand voice and seriousness about your message.

Curlz

Creativity is respected everywhere; however, if you consider using curl in your email design, it’s strongly advised to leave it.

The added curls at the end of the letter are non-ideal and can be distracting for the readers.

Trajan

Even Google agrees that using Trajan is highly likable regarding business communication.

Not only is it an overdramatic font, but it’s okay-ish for using the font in emails.

You can limit the use of this font to the entertainment industry. It suits much better for the Indie film poster instead of email marketing campaigns.

Papyrus

Papyrus is considered the king of bad fonts. It’s not just childish but also has itchy and irritating characteristics.

You should avoid this font no matter what; also if you want readers to take seriously what you are saying, this font is a no-no.

How To Choose Your Email Marketing Font?

You must make the ultimate decision to pick the right font for your email marketing. This helps in conveying the message with the right tone and impression.

The typography style chosen for the complementing as well as reinforces the right message.

It should resonate with the persona of your overall brand and image to create the right message in mind.

Here are some of the examples which can help you in choosing the right font:

Time New Roman is considered when you are discussing the unique selling proposition or highlighting the performance every year. This gives an authoritative font that creates a better impact and demands attention.

Open Sans is better for showcasing your product line. Since it appears much more welcoming, this leads your readers to read the email and click on the call to action.

Helteva is ideal if you are choosing it for the promotional headings. The font is bold in a style that grabs your audience’s attention, so you can consider using it when offering coupons and seasonal sales.

If you are writing a lengthy newsletter, you can choose Arial; this font is easy to read and widely used, giving your audience a sense of familiarity.

Tips To Choose The Best Font For Your Email Marketing

The best font for the email would help. However, it won’t give you results if you are not using it properly.

So you need to consider the best practices when choosing the preferred font style to generate the maximum benefit for your email marketing.

Be Smart With Choosing a Number Of Fonts

It’s important that you are being adventurous; however, ensure you are not picking multiple fonts in your email more than needed.

At max, you should go with two fonts that you need to use in email, one for the heading and one for the body.

Pick The Right Font Size

Next, you need to pay attention to the size of your font. If it’s too big, it will give the audience the impression of screaming.

If it’s too small, the readers squint their eyes to make sense of what is written.

So it’s recommended to stick between the pixels of 22 – 28 for the heading, whereas, for the body, it should be around 12 – 14 pixels, it should be both desktop and screens.

Find The Right Font Alignment

There are four basic alignments you get, i.e. left, right, center, and justified.

You might believe that justified is an idea as it gives a clean vibe. However, it’s not the actual case, as the optimal alignment you should go with is left since it’s much easier to read.

Left alignment provides the white space, which is enough to give breaks to eyes while reading, making it much more comfortable and meaningful.

Choose The Right Font Colors

The right font might not benefit you if you choose a color that is an eyesore.

The font color you choose should complement your background color in the mail. So if the background color is dark, the light-colored font will look appealing, and vice versa.

Make sure you are not using more than three colors, and keep in mind all those three should complement each other too.

Think About The Web Font Usage

Well, there is no doubt using a web font comes with a risk, and there are brands who are gravitated towards how they are using it, as this gives them more creativity and resonates with the persona.

As of 2020, 82% of web pages use web fonts. It is inevitable for email marketers to join this.

If you are not sure about the fonts, then it’s safest to consider using them over using the image.

With this, you can get the benefit of using a web font. This gives you creativity without risking the display of the font.

Give Attention To The Line Spacing

It’s important to understand the line spacing, even if it doesn’t seem like it’s important. However you need to understand what can be improved.

The ideal spacing should be between 1.5 to 2 lines. This plays around on different lines for spacing to see the readers and prefer more.

Include The Call To Action Buttons

Your ultimate goal is to send an email and direct the audience toward the landing page. The call to action or CTA should be in the right way to win your audience’s attention.

However, if you want to stand out, put the CTA button in a different font than other email bodies.

Do The A/B Testing

Email marketing comes with one rule: to do tests and more tests.

On average, the commerce brands should do the A/B test their email generates; it is more than 20% more revenue.

So if you are confused about which font you can choose, design the same email with content and use two fonts. Send the first email to half and the second to rest, and see which brings higher open and click-through rates.