Omnisend offers a wide range of fonts for Email Campaigns and Automation Workflows. Learn which fonts display consistently across all devices, when to use custom fonts, and how to test font rendering before sending.

Why Font Compatibility Matters

Fonts affect how your contacts read and engage with your emails. Email-safe fonts display correctly on all devices and email clients, ensuring a consistent brand experience. Custom fonts add unique styling but may not render everywhere; in those cases, Omnisend uses fallback fonts to maintain readability.

Custom fonts in email are only supported by a minority of clients. Apple Mail (macOS/iOS) and a few others reliably display web fonts, but most major clients (including Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo) ignore them and use fallback fonts instead.

According to Litmus, while Apple Mail accounts for a significant portion of tracked opens (including Mail Privacy Protection), custom fonts will not render consistently across all recipients due to limited support in other widely used clients.

💡 Uncover fonts' best practices in our blog post.

Email-Safe Fonts vs. Custom Fonts

Email-Safe Fonts

Email-safe fonts are pre-loaded on nearly every computer and device. Your contacts will see these fonts exactly as you design them, regardless of their email client or device.

When to use email-safe fonts:

You want consistent appearance across all email clients.
Bold and italic formatting are essential to your design.
Reliability is more important than brand-specific typography.

Email-Safe Fonts with Fallback Variants

Font Name	Fallback 1	Fallback 2	Fallback 3	Fallback 4
Arial	Sans Serif
Courier	Courier New	Monospace
Courier New	Courier	Monospace
Georgia	Serif
Helvetica	Helvetica Neue	Arial	Verdana	Sans Serif
Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Verdana	Sans Serif
Lucida	Lucida Sans Unicode	Lucida Grande	Sans Serif
Tahoma	Sans Serif
Times	Times New Roman	Serif
Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Trebuchet MS	Sans Serif
Verdana	Sans Serif

Custom Fonts

Custom fonts (also called web fonts) add unique styling to match your brand but only display on supported devices. On unsupported devices, Omnisend automatically uses a fallback font that matches the style.

When to use custom fonts:

Brand consistency on Apple devices is a priority.
You're comfortable with approximately 50% of contacts seeing fallback fonts.
Bold and italic styling are not critical to your message.

Custom Fonts with Fallback Variants

Font Name	Fallback 1	Fallback 2	Fallback 3	Fallback 4	Fallback 5
Abril Fatface	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Alegreya	Georgia	Times New Roman	Serif
Alegreya Sans	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Verdana	Sans Serif
Anton	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Verdana	Sans Serif
Antonio	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Verdana	Sans Serif
Arimo	Arial	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Sans Serif
Arvo	Courier	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Catamaran	Lucida Sans Unicode	Lucida Grande	Sans Serif
Della Respira	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
DM Sans	Tahoma	Sans Serif
Dosis	Dosis	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Fira Sans	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Gilda Display	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Inter	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Lato	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Lora	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Marcellus	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Merriweather	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Merriweather Sans	Georgia	Lucida Grande	Arial	Sans Serif
Montserrat	Verdana	sans-serif
Nanum Gothic	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Neuton	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Noticia Text	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Noto Sans	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Open Sans	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Oswald	Impact	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Playfair Display	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Poppins	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
PT Sans	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
PT Serif	Georgia	Times New Roman	Times	Serif
Quicksand	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Raleway	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Recursive	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Roboto	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Rubik	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Source Code Pro	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Monospace
Source Sans Pro	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Space Mono	Courier	Georgia	Monospace
Syncopate	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Ubuntu	Helvetica Neue	Helvetica	Arial	Sans Serif
Work Sans	Lucida Sans Unicode	Lucida Grande	Sans Serif

Custom fonts may not support bold or italic styling in many email clients. Even if your selected font includes bold or italic variants, unsupported clients (such as Gmail) will use fallback fonts instead, which may not match the intended font weight or style.

For example, if you use Poppins Bold, recipients using Gmail may see regular or thinner text instead.

Test Fonts Before Sending

Before sending your actual email, follow these steps to verify font rendering across different email clients:

Create a test segment with your own email addresses across different providers (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail).
Send a real campaign (not just a test email) to that segment.
Check how the email appears in each client, including desktop apps and mobile devices.
If fonts don't display as expected, switch to an email-safe font or adjust your design to accommodate fallback fonts.

Note: Test emails and Email Editor previews may not perfectly reflect how all recipients will see your email. Always send to real inboxes before launching a campaign or automation email.

FAQ

Why does my bold text look thinner in test emails?

If you're using a custom font (like Poppins, Montserrat, or Marcellus), bold formatting may not display in many email clients. Even if the font has a bold variant, email clients often fall back to a system font that may not support the same weight. To ensure bold text works reliably, use an email-safe font.

Can I upload custom fonts to Omnisend?

Custom font upload is not supported for Email Campaigns. However, you can select from our available custom fonts (web fonts) in the Email Builder.