Custom Fonts in Email

Documentation Index

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Flowforth does not support custom or web fonts in standard emails. This is intentional. Most email clients strip out the code needed to load custom fonts, causing unpredictable fallbacks that can significantly change how your email looks. Rather than giving you a feature that only works for a small percentage of recipients, we limit standard emails to web-safe font families that render consistently everywhere. The font families available in the standard email editor are:

• Sans Serif (generic)
• Serif (generic)
• Arial
• Georgia
• Verdana
• Courier New
• Helvetica
• Lucida Sans
• Tahoma
• Times New Roman
• Trebuchet MS

If you need a custom font, you can use an HTML email and include your own @font-face declarations, but be aware of the client support limitations below.

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Why Custom Fonts Don’t Work in Most Email Clients

Unlike web browsers, most email clients strip out the code needed to load custom or web fonts (like those from Google Fonts). When a custom font can’t load, the email client falls back to a default font, which can change the look of your email significantly. Email clients that support custom web fonts:

• Apple Mail (macOS and iOS)
• Outlook (macOS 2011 and 2016, iOS older versions)
• Samsung Email (Android, except with Microsoft email addresses)
• Thunderbird (macOS)
• HEY (desktop webmail)
• 1&1 / IONOS (desktop webmail)
• GMX and WEB.DE (iOS only)

Email clients that do not support custom web fonts:

• Gmail (all versions)
• Outlook.com and Outlook on Windows (the declaration is supported but remote fonts are ignored, falling back to Times New Roman)
• Outlook for Android
• Yahoo Mail (all versions)
• AOL (all versions)
• ProtonMail (desktop and iOS)
• Fastmail
• Most other webmail clients

Even in Apple Mail, the custom font will only display if the recipient has the font installed on their device or the email includes code to load it remotely. Many design tools (like Canva) don’t include this loading code, so even Apple Mail users may see a fallback font.

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Web-Safe Fonts

These fonts are installed on virtually all devices and will display consistently across email clients. When choosing fonts in Flowforth’s email editor, these are your safest choices.

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Sans Serif

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Serif

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Monospace

For the best results, a font stack should always end with a generic family. Ideal stacks look like:

• Sans serif: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif
• Serif: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif

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What Happens with Unsupported Fonts

When an email uses a font that the recipient’s email client doesn’t support, the client picks a fallback. This process works like a chain:

1. The email specifies a preferred font (e.g., “Montserrat”)
2. The client checks if it can load that font. If not, it moves to the next font in the list.
3. It continues down the list until it finds one it supports.
4. If none match, it uses the client’s default font (usually Times New Roman or Arial).

This is why emails designed in tools like Canva may look different when viewed in Gmail or Outlook. The design tool may use a custom font like Montserrat, but include Arial or Helvetica as fallbacks for clients that don’t support it.

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Tips for Choosing Fonts

• Stick to web-safe fonts if consistent appearance across all email clients matters to you.
• Design with the fallback in mind. If you use a custom font, check how your email looks with the fallback font too, since that’s what most of your recipients will see.
• Use Flowforth’s built-in font options. The fonts available in the email editor are selected for broad compatibility.
• Test your emails. Send a test email and check how it looks in different clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) before sending to your full list.

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Importing Emails from Other Tools

If you import an email from a tool like Canva, the original design may use custom fonts that won’t render in most email clients. Flowforth imports the HTML as-is, including whatever font stacks the original tool used. The fallback fonts specified in that code will be what most recipients see. There’s no way to make custom fonts work universally in email. This is a fundamental limitation of how email clients render HTML, not something specific to any one tool or platform.

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Need help choosing the right fonts for your emails? Contact support@flowforth.co.