How to Choose A Font for Your Email (And Some of Our Favorites!)

Do you ever feel overwhelmed when trying to choose the right font for your email newsletter? We understand!

Designing an email can be a daunting task and typography (the art of arranging type) can make or break your design. When it comes to emails you want to find a font that is both on-brand and web-safe.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when choosing a font for your next email:

Use Fonts That Work

If you do not know what a web-safe font is, you are not alone! In brief, web-safe fonts are fonts installed by default on most operating systems. So, if you use a web-safe font in your email design, most viewers will see it displayed correctly when viewing your email on their computer or phone. We recommend using these types of fonts because they ensure that viewers will see your email designed as you intended.

So, what happens if you don’t use a web-safe font? Don’t worry, your text will still be visible to users! But if a person viewing your email does not have your font installed on their device, their browser will substitute a default font for the one that is missing. Simply put, your design will be altered. This can be disappointing if you have spent hours designing an email to fit your brand.

In sum, if you don’t want to compromise your brand when designing emails, use a web-safe font!

When in Doubt, Use A Sans Serif

A note: In digital design, sans serif fonts are typically used more often than serif fonts, because they are easier to read on screen! However, a serif font that is web-safe, like Georgia, can also be legible and accessible to most users.

Constant Contact (our email marketing tool of choice here at Miel Creative Studio) has plenty of fonts to choose from to create your perfect email template.

Here are 5 commonly used sans serif web safe fonts you can use to design your next email:

• Arial
• Verdana
• Lucida Sans Unicode
• Tahoma
• Trebuchet MS

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

Constant Contact also has numerous non-standard web fonts to choose from, which allows for even more customization in your design! These fonts are also websafe, but they are not included on every operating system. As mentioned before, if someone does not have this font installed on their device, a default font will be substituted.

5 great non-standard options you can use include:

• Bitter: a playful serif font suitable for headlines and body copy.
• Roboto: a friendly sans serif with a modern feel!
• Open Sans: a humanist sans serif known for its legibility on screen.
• Raleway: a versatile sans serif that comes in 9 different weights, each with its own italic style! A perfect choice if you want to create a clean, minimal newsletter.
• Lobster Two: an eye-catching script font perfect for headlines!

I hope these tips get you excited to pick a font (or two) for your next email campaign! And remember, have fun with it!

Still feeling overwhelmed by how to create effective email marketing? Schedule a free consult with us. Not only can we help you select the perfect on-brand web-saavy font, but we can also help you with a cross-platform marketing strategy that will get results without taking you away from what you do best.