At first glance, choosing fonts in email signatures may seem unnecessary and superficial. But besides providing your contact information, a professional email signature lets you show your personality and build your brand’s reputation.
However, using the wrong font type can also mean recipients won’t be able to see it as you do. That’s why it’s important to carefully choose wisely.
Here, we’ll discuss the differences between serif fonts and sans serif fonts and explain how to choose the best email signature font.
Elements of an Email Signature
An email signature contains numerous important elements:
- User’s photo
- Contact details
- Color scheme
- Template style
- Font
Each of these elements says a lot about you, your company, and your brand, so it’s crucial to take time and design the best email signature.
What Makes a Good Email Signature Font?
Choosing the best font is much more than selecting the one you like. A good email signature font needs to be:
- Legible – The font style you choose should be easy to read.
- Versatile – The selected email signature font should be available on all email platforms, computers, web browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices.
- Clean – The font should leave a positive impression on the recipient and convey maturity, professionalism, and reliability.
- On-brand – The selected font should match your brand guidelines.
What Are Web-Safe Fonts for Email Signatures?
The font style you choose should be web-safe. What does this mean? Let’s say you choose a custom font that makes you stand out from the rest. If this font isn’t pre-installed on the recipient’s device, they won’t be able to see it, negating the entire purpose of your email signature. It’s vital to select a web-safe font that looks the same across all major email providers, computers, and mobile devices.
Serif Fonts vs. Sans-Serif Fonts
Fonts can be divided into serif and sans-serif fonts. The primary difference between the two is in the decorative strokes, also known as serifs.
A serif font has decorative strokes at the end of certain letters. Such a font looks more traditional, so it’s often used in newspapers and books.
A sans-serif font doesn’t have these strokes, so it offers a cleaner, more modern look.
Both serif and sans serif fonts can be excellent choices but not all fonts that belong to these categories are suitable for an email signature. Choosing the wrong font could leave a wrong impression and affect your company’s reputation.
Are Custom Fonts a Good Choice?
Custom fonts are fonts that are created specifically for your needs. They have their advantages and drawbacks.
On the plus side, a custom font helps you express your individuality and creativity and make your company stand out from the rest. One of the biggest drawbacks is that custom fonts are typically not web-safe. While custom fonts may work within your company, they usually aren’t pre-installed on an external recipient’s device. Due to this, the font may not show correctly and will automatically change to a default font like Times New Roman.
A List of the Best Email Signature Fonts
Here’s a list of serif and sans-serif web fonts you can safely use for your business email signature.
- Arial – This is a sans-serif typeface in the neo-grotesque style.
- Arial Black – Arial Black is part of the versatile Arial font family. It looks just like Arial but has a bolder style.
- Calibri – Calibri is also a font that has a modern style with subtle rounding on corners and stems.
- Courier New – Courier New is another web-safe font. This monospaced font was originally designed for IBM and later adapted for digital content.
- Helvetica – Helvetica is a sans-serif typeface with neo-grotesque elements. It was inspired by different German and Swiss designs.
- Open Sans – Open Sans is an open-source typeface, and many consider it the best font for email signatures.
- Palatino – Palatino is an old-style serif font widely used as a corporate typeface. You can often see it in advertising headlines and text.
- Tahoma – Tahoma is a humanist sans-serif font designed for Microsoft Corporation. This font is a combination of two Windows TrueType fonts: regular and bold.
- Verdana – Verdana is another modern sans-serif typeface designed for Microsoft Corporation. This font’s main purpose was to enhance readability on smaller screens.
- Times New Roman – Times New Roman is a serif font with economic spacing and narrow characters designed for newspapers.
All these fonts are suitable for email signature fonts. Ultimately, the choice is yours. You can opt for serifs or sans serifs and create a clean, visually appealing email signature design.
What Is the Best Email Signature Font Size?
Besides font styles, you should also consider choosing the right font size. If your professional signature font is too small, the recipient may not be able to view all the information. If the professional signature font is too big, it could affect the appearance of your entire email and convey the wrong message.
Ideally, choose a font point size that ranges between 10 and 12.
What Fonts Should You Avoid?
Now that we’ve reviewed your best options, let’s discuss what fonts to avoid in email signatures.
In most cases, avoid using custom or decorative fonts that won’t work on all operating systems and major email providers. Whether you’re adding an email signature in Outlook, Apple Mail, Gmail, or another provider, be sure to choose a web-safe and email-safe font. Fonts need to work across all devices without having a distorted appearance. These are fonts like Comic Sans, Metropolis, Papyrus, and Curlz.
Avoid fonts that are difficult to read. This can have a negative impact on the signature’s visual perception and ultimately affect your company’s reputation. Keep in mind that readability can often be subjective. Just because you can clearly see the font doesn’t mean it’s the same for others. Your best bet is email-safe fonts that work across all devices.
Should You Use Google Fonts?
Google offers an impressive selection of fonts for email signatures. The problem is that your recipient may not have installed the specific font you chose for your email signature. In that case, the recipient won’t be able to see your signature at all.
What Is a Fallback Font?
Fallback fonts are backup email-safe fonts that appear if the system doesn’t recognize some of the characters from your original font. All web-safe fonts can be used as a fallback font.
Tips on Choosing the Best Fonts for Email Signatures
Here are a few tips that can help you choose the perfect professional email signature font:
- Try out different fonts before selecting the best one.
- Experiment with different sizes.
- Stick with one font in your email signature.
- Opt for web-safe fonts to be sure they’ll work on all platforms.
- Avoid bright or light colors.
Summary
What is the best font for your email signature? There’s no definitive answer. If you want to create a perfect email signature, choose a web-safe font, include all the necessary information, and avoid mixing different styles.
