The Science Behind Email Fonts: Enhancing Email Readability and Appeal

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Email font is one of the most important elements when designing emails for your marketing campaign, affecting how the message is perceived and whether it is comfortable to read. Choosing the best font for your emails can increase engagement and conversion rates, so don’t overlook this important yet elusive aspect.

We have prepared a list of the best fonts for email marketing to help you choose the perfect email font for your newsletters, brand updates, nurturing emails, and other email correspondence.

Without any further ado, let’s dig into it.

Best Fonts for Email

Finding the best font for emails usually means browsing through thousands of examples and analyzing them. You might copy the fonts used by well-known brands or apply any other strategy.

However, it’s always best not to copy someone else’s success but to pave your own path to engagement and conversions. For that, you need to know your audience and take some time browsing through the list of email fonts.

Here are the fonts from our collection: Rial, Helvetica, Open Sans, Times New Roman, Calibri, Cambria, Georgia, Verdana, Tahoma, Courier Prime, Lucida Sans, Trebuchet MS, Palatino, Monaco, Impact, Syncopate, Lobster, and Pacifico.

Let’s go through all of them one by one so you can find your best font for email marketing.

Arial

Arial font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Arial is a common default font for all types of emails. It has the best font size for email, which can be adjusted within a wide range of values. If you are unsure what email font to use, just choose Arial.

Helvetica

Helvetica font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Helvetica is a fairly common email font that is quite good for any type of email. It has an optimal size and provides enough readability and clarity, making it particularly suitable for sales.

Open Sans

Open Sans font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Open Sans is another email-friendly font, having a standard email size and providing ample readability and clarity. It’s quite effective for marketing emails.

Times New Roman

Times New Roman font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Times New Roman might be the best font for email marketing, including sales emails. It’s easy to read and has a wide range of sizes to fit any type of email.

Calibri

Calibri font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Calibri is the default email font that can be considered one of the clearest fonts due to its simplicity and readability. Therefore, it rightfully holds its place among the most professional fonts.

Cambria

Cambria font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

If you’re looking for the best email fonts for business, Cambria might be a good one. It’s one of the smallest professional fonts, but yet no less effective if used carefully and in the right place.

Georgia

Georgia font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Georgia may not be the most professional font for email, but it is quite stylish and modern, and looks great in product descriptions.

Verdana

Verdana font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Verdana is aesthetic and clear, but it’s also one of the standard fonts used in marketing letters, so you might not be able to stand out with it. Regardless, Verdana is a fairly safe choice for emails of any type.

Tahoma

Tahoma font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Tahoma is surely a candidate for the best font for email marketing when it comes to purely promotional emails and newsletters. It doesn’t stand out too much, so it’s another safe choice when it comes to email marketing.

Courier Prime

Courier Prime font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Courier Prime looks quite good in emails of all formats. It can also be considered a good font for email signatures and, overall, one of the optimal email fonts.

Lucida Sans

Lucida Sans font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Easily readable and well-received by the audience, Lucida Sans is a great newsletter font and might even become your best font for email marketing. It boasts clarity and smooth lines with a modern design.

Trebuchet MS

Trebuchet font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Trebuchet offers a concise style along with a restrained, clear design.

Palatino

Palatino font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Palatino is one of the best newsletter fonts because it looks unconventional but is easy to read. Palatino possesses all the characteristics of a professional email font and can serve as a standard email font for newsletters and business emails.

Monaco

Monaco font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Monaco gives a sleek look to email signatures, professional messages, greeting cards, and promotions.

Impact

Impact font sample: letters and numbers

Source: Wikipedia

Impact offers a somewhat unconventional style. It might not be the most practical email font for business, but it’s readable and aesthetic.

Syncopate

Syncopate font sample

Source: 1001fonts

Syncopate is an unconventional font that is quite risky to use yet offers a great payoff. If you are looking for an unusual font, consider this one.

Lobster

Lobster font sample

Source: Fontsquirrel

Lobster is another unconventional font that might either repel or attract attention. It might not be the best for corporate emails, but you can give it a try all the same.

Pacifico

Pacifico font sample

Source: Fontsquirrel

Pacifico can be used for email signatures, mimicking handwritten text while looking stylish and original.

The Best Email Fonts: Comparative Table

Let’s evaluate each font based on a ten-point scale across key parameters:

Based on the scores, Verdana leads the pack, but, of course, it’s up to your taste. Each of the examples could win, so you might want to try several fonts to choose the most suitable ones for different types of emails.

The Best Email Fonts by Purpose

If you’re looking for the best font for email to use across different types of messages, check out this analysis:

Best Email Font For Newsletters Open Sans: This font has a modern and stylish appearance and is easy to read and intuitive
Best Email Font for Sales Emails Arial: This font may seem somewhat outdated, but it effectively highlights the essence of the email
Best Email Font for Email Signature Lucida Sans: This font increases the perception of brand expertise and can increase conversion rates
Best Email Font for Professional Emails Helvetica: This font looks the most solid, making it a great choice for corporate emails

At the end of the day, though, the best font for emails is one that suits your business case, enhancing the conversion rate of your emails. Remember, you are not limited to using only one font or size, but are free to experiment until you find your best font for emails.

The right font for email can turn your emails into works of art. By using quality fonts in combination with well-designed layouts, graphics, and other email marketing components, you can achieve several advantages:

  • Improved lead generation
  • Higher levels of engagement
  • Better content perception
  • Higher conversion rates
  • Significant campaign profitability

To increase the chances of success in your marketing campaign, use professional fonts from our list and develop your strategy through A/B testing.

Email Marketing Extravaganza at MailCon in New York

MailCon is back with a one-day email performance and deliverability conference on July 28th in New York City.

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And here’s why MailCon is the coolest email marketing event you can attend:

 

Here are some of the topics that will be covered on July 28th:

And so much more!

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About the authors

  • MailCon
    MailCon

    Owned and operated by Phonexa, MailCon is a global community that connects marketing professionals with the latest technology, trends, and strategies in email marketing, marketing automation, mobile and omnichannel marketing. Our fantastic team of content writers contribute to this blog with inspiration from the incredible community of marketers we are privileged to host.

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