I use Mail.app for much of my emailing (when not using my iPhone), and I've noticed that no matter what I do, my emails always end up in Times New Roman font on any other email client but Mail.app, no matter what I do. This includes using basic fonts that all computers have, including Arial, Verdana, and Courier New. After searching around for this for a bit, I learned that this behavior has been consistent in Mail.app for years and no fix by Apple.

I ran across a forum that had some ideas for a solution. They are all hacks, but I found one that I liked the best. It seems that, for whatever reason, this font issue does not affect the signatures. So I edited my signatures to use the same font that I want to send emails with, and added a line at the top that says "<begin message here>". As long as I start my message on that line, and not above it, the fonts work as expected in all mail reasders that I could test, Outlook and Thunderbird included.

I sure wish Apple would fix this, as multiple bugs have been submitted on it. But at least I can use Mail.app for corporate emails and not have it look like crap any more.

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This entry was posted on January 13, 2011 at 11:02 PM and has received 1322 views. There are currently 3 comments. Print this entry.