What fonts should be used in email campaigns?

This article is devoted to such an important topic as the best fonts in emails:

• How to select a font for email?
• Rules of using fonts in emails
• Style elements in emails

A font well matching general design of your email allows reader to skim text and understand its idea. Display of fonts largely depends on capabilities of devices, on which email is opened.

How to select fonts for campaigns?

As far as most of email providers use HTML for email display, you need to use correct HTML codes for font and style. Use common fonts as they are displayed correctly on all devices and email clients:

Follow the following rules choosing fonts:

• Use different fonts for headers and blocks. There are no preferred fonts for headers, so you may use your fantasy, but don’t forget to check capabilities of email providers. Don’t use too many fonts in one email, as the text will look disordered. Two or three different fonts will be just fine. The best option is to use one font for a header and another one for the whole text.

• It is better not to add fantasy fonts in the text. You can use them only for specific elements. They are hard to read in long texts and it is doubtful that they are correctly displayed on reader’s device. If you really want to add something unusual to your promo email, add ALT text in fantasy font to images.

• Choose a font, which complements your email, accentuates corporate identity etc. It would be strange to use Comic Sans for a serious email, but if you have close relations with your client, it can be applicable. Comic Sans is one of the fonts which is often criticized. So if you like this font, don’t apply it to the whole text. Use it for headers or single elements. Please, keep in mind that too many fonts make your email difficult to read and comprehend.

• Avoid loads of fonts and their incompatible combinations, such as Arial and Comic Sans.

• Use the same fonts on landing pages and emails, so that your user could get used to you.

• Sans serif text is considered better for reading. However, Serif text is easy to read on devices and it looks more friendly than some Sans serif fonts.

Style elements in emails

You already know what fonts should be used in email campaigns. Now let’s talk about specific font elements. Change of font style can make your email look more attractive and highlight the main idea of the text. Here are the most useful style elements and the most appropriate application areas:

• Bold highlights important phrases and makes contrast in the text. You can make text bold in most email editors with no need to add HTML tags. Bold is largely used for headers, signatures, single words and phrases or important sentences. Bold text in the middle of a passage may distract reader’s attention. So, if you need to emphasize only one word, it is better to use Italic.

• Italic highlights your words delicately. It is a good choice for one word or a short phrase in a section, marking subheaders, proper names or titles. Italic may be difficult to read on laptop monitor, that is why use it for single words or short phrases.

Avoid overuse of bold or Italic font as it makes text unreadable and a user will just close your email.

• Underlined text can be mistaken for hyperlinks. You can underline headers to make it distinguished, but it is better to insert hyperlinks to prevent your client’s disappointment while clicking underlined text with no effect.

• Change of font size makes text comfortable for reading on laptop monitors. You can apply different size for headers and subheaders to draw reader’s attention or vice versa - to make some text less noticeable.

• Color font can improve or spoil impression about your email. Use of dark text and light background is the most acceptable option, but not vice versa. Make sure that font color and background color contrast sufficiently.

The use of too many colours will look really weird in email and it is likely to go to spam also because of color intensity and diversity. Avoid contrasting bright colors: blue, red, yellow, etc., especially if email consists only of them.

• Font height and indent are equally important for comfortable reading. The best font for main text should be not less than 12px taking into account that your emails are viewed on mobile deviсes. It is better not to use the font bigger than 16px, as it makes your email too long and uncomfortable to read.  

The simplest recommendation is to asses your texts diligently and to highlight key points, as in this way the chances that your clients will read your email and do expected actions are much higher.