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The Perfect Sign-Off: The 10 Best Fonts for Your Email Signature
Your Guide to Professional and Stylish Email Signature Fonts
Lenore Sterner & Megan Smith
April 22nd, 2023
Table of Contents
This article has been updated to maintain its accuracy and relevance.
Think about the last time you received a thoughtfully wrapped gift.
The wrapping paper wasn’t the most important part. But someone took the time to make the gift look pretty, focused on the details, and presented you with a package that quite literally “tied it all up with a bow.”
The font you select for your email newsletter signature is the bow that takes your email content creation strategy to the next level. It’s a professional, thoughtful detail that at first glance doesn’t seem important, but shows your care and dedication to making a lasting impression on your audience.
Not an expert in typography? Crafting your perfect sign-off doesn’t have to be challenging. We’ve got you covered with information about what works, what doesn’t, and what your font says about you and your brand.
We’ll also show you how to select a web and email-safe font so your signature looks perfect across all devices and operating systems. This ensures every reader gets a consistent experience. Let’s dive in so you can sign off in style.
Why Does an Email Signature Matter?
As they say, you only get one chance to make a great first impression. Your email newsletter signature is your last opportunity to drive home the first impression you’ve left with your copy, your graphics, and your design–and it is a detail that shouldn’t be neglected.
Building a world-class email newsletter takes time and dedication to keep your readers coming back for more. Your email signature should reflect the same time and dedication you put into the rest of your email while aligning with your brand’s unique voice.
An email signature is also professional and increases your audience’s trust in you. Your signature says who you are and how to contact you.
Think of it like handing someone your business card at a networking event. Your signature is the digital version of a business card, with all the information your audience needs to contact you and find out more about your brand.
What Are Web-Safe and Email-Safe Fonts, and Why Do You Need One?
A web-safe font is any font that will display properly on almost any operating system. Most operating systems come with these typefaces pre-installed. Web-safe fonts generally will work on any website.
Designers gravitate toward these fonts because they know that graphics and texts will always look their best, just as they intended. Here is a list of the best web-safe fonts that we’ll discuss in this article:
These are only a sampling of fonts that are web-safe and perfect for your website design. beehiiv gives you the option to upload your favorite Google Font to use on your website.
While web-safe fonts are usually pre-installed on most operating systems, there are occasionally some browsers or email clients that won’t recognize a particular web-safe font choice.
That’s why there is a much more restrictive group of fonts that are considered email-safe. These fonts have the highest likelihood of displaying correctly, regardless of the operating system, browser, or email client:
Email-safe fonts are especially important for email campaigns. You don't want to craft something beautiful and professional only to find your audience puzzling over distorted text or annoyed by odd spacing.
Even really popular fonts may not be web-safe. For example, Helvetica — the default font for Apple Mail — may be 100% compatible with Apple operating systems, but it's only 7.34% compatible with Windows. On the other hand, Windows users who love Franklin Gothic Medium (99.18% Windows compatible) should be aware that it's a disheartening 2.1% compatible with Macs.
What if the Font I Want To Use for My Newsletter Isn’t Email-Safe?
The list of font options that are considered email-safe is a short one. So what if you want to use a different font in your email newsletter, especially as your signature?
Don’t stress. When it comes to your email newsletter signature, there is a broad range of web-safe fonts that will display on almost every email client (and we’ll talk about the best options below).
If the font doesn’t display correctly in your receiver’s email client, the most likely outcome is that the email client will revert to their default font, like these examples:
Gmail: Arial
iCloud: Helvetica
Microsoft Outlook: Calibri
What Are the Best Fonts To Use for Email Signatures?
When creating a professional email signature, it is important to choose a web-safe font that reflects your brand. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, and popular choices include clean sans-serif fonts, classic serif fonts, and vintage monospace fonts.
Our best font — email-signature division — winners are web-safe and (mostly) accessible fonts, meaning that they're considered inclusive and easy to read (we've noted where accessibility issues might occur).
In other words, even if you really love your Gothic, there's probably a signature font your readers would appreciate more.
If you want to know how compatible your personal favorite is, you can check out the statistics on well-known fonts at Dan's Tools. But you don’t have to do that. We're all about saving you time and worry here at beehiiv. So, here are the top ten best fonts for email signatures.
Sans-Serif Fonts
The term "sans-serif" means without serifs — the small flourishes at the end of letter strokes. These typefaces are modern-looking with a minimal, clean design that won't distract from your message.
1) Arial
The one font to rule them all. Arial is the most universally-compatible font, which is one reason Gmail uses it as its default font. The font family is clear, but a little softer and fuller than many sans-serif fonts. If you want a slightly bolder choice, there's always Arial Black.
Arial is available on every major operating system, browser, and email client. It is also an inclusive and accessible font so using it means that the most people possible can read your signature.
2) Tahoma
In appearance, the Tahoma font is similar to Arial, but is more compressed, with letters that are closer together.
Technical and scientific publications often use this formal font due to the ease of distinguishing between letters with similar shapes — such as the lowercase "L" and the uppercase "I." That can be vital when it comes to unit abbreviations.
3) Verdana
The keyword for Verdana is "legible." As with Tahoma, it's easy to distinguish between letters, but the font itself is wider.
How big do you want your signature to be? Verdana is a very plain, blocky font that doesn't look particularly good in larger sizes. If you imagine something grand and sweeping, choose something else.
That being said, Verdana is very easy to read on mobile browsers as it’s perfect for the tiny screen.
4) Trebuchet MS
First, the bad news–Trebuchet MS has slightly curved elements, which may make it hard to read in a long passage of text. As such, it's not considered accessible. But for the short space of a signature, it may be just fine.
(It also has my favorite font name. I like to think of lobbing communications at people with a trebuchet catapult).
Serif Fonts
The word "serif" means the small lines at the end of a letter stroke. (Which you probably knew or could guess because "sans-serif" fonts don't have those flourishes.) Serif fonts are classic and give an impression of authority.
5) Georgia
When designers describe the Georgia font, they often wind up speaking in oxymorons and paradoxes. It's formal but intimate, and modern but old-world. Varying line thickness gives it a slightly calligraphic feel, but it's a versatile, clear font initially designed for the web.
6) Times New Roman
Is it dating myself to say that when I was a kid, everything had to be in Times New Roman? It's a classic serif font with a journalistic feel.
7) Palatino
Intended to invoke old-world, Italian-Renaissance lines, Palatino is often used on letterheads and other corporate outputs. It's an accessible font that still conveys a slight air of grandeur.
8) Lucida Bright
Lucida Bright has a grown-up feel, but there's an underlying friendliness to it. As with Palatino and Georgia, its lines are slightly thicker than more traditional serif fonts, giving it a modern twist.
Monospaced
In a monospaced font, every letter is given the same width — hence the term "mono" for one and "spaced" for space. These fonts hearken back to the days of the typewriter, when regular spacing was necessary.
9) Courier New
Courier New is the closest you can come to the digital typewriter font. It's plain but functional and evokes bygone technology.
10) Lucida Sans Typewriter
Lucida Sans Typewriter is another monospaced font, with a more contemporary feel than Courier New. Its edges are slightly rounded, but it retains the same even spacing.
Other Fonts
If none of these feel right, you can explore more decorative fonts. Papyrus and Copperplate work on most devices, and they're easy to read in small amounts. As for handwritten script fonts, Brush Script performs well across operating systems.
These fonts are not considered accessible and might not make the best choice for ordinary content. But they might be just right in the small space your email signature takes up.
Other Email Signature Font Elements To Consider
Use the following questions to help make your choice:
Do you intend to create printed materials as well as digital ones? If yes, choose a versatile font that looks good both on the page and the screen.
How extensively do you intend to use this font, beyond your signature? If it's going to be part of a lot of copy, accessibility is all-important. It should also look good in different formats and sizes. Choosing a web-safe and email-safe font is a best practice to ensure your copy looks its best.
What information do you want to include? Is all of it going to use the same font? If you intend your signature to include all of your contact information and a tagline, opt for a simpler font.
Do you intend to use the signature for your personal email as well? If yes, does it still send the right message?
How To Choose the Best Email Signature Font
There is no single best font for email signatures- only the best one for your brand. When picking any of your brand's email design elements, ask yourself what you want to communicate with your audience even before they start reading. What should that first glance convey about you and your brand?
If you want to convey professionalism, pay attention to the details to elevate your brand to the next level.
What Is the Best Size?
Your email signature should be no wider than 320 px. This makes your signature look great, even on a tiny mobile screen.
Different email clients have different character limits, but don’t overthink it. Instead, keep your signature to only relevant professional information, such as the information you would put on a business card if you were meeting your audience at a networking event.
What Is the Best Color?
The colors that you choose for your email signature should be easy-to-read and align with the rest of your content. You don’t want your email signature to completely derail the rest of your design!
That being said, get creative with your colors. You can incorporate brand colors from a logo, for example, to maximize your professional look.
Your Brand’s Style
Find a font that matches your personality.
If you would describe your brand using any of these words, a sans-serif font might fit you well:
Accessible
Contemporary
Efficient
Practical
No-nonsense
Simple
Versatile
Serif choices might be the best fonts for email signatures for brands that are:
Classic
Conservative
Elegant
Familiar
Formal
Mature
Professional
Sophisticated
And monospaced or decorative fonts might suit brands you'd call:
Bold
Creative
Cutting edge
Exclusive
Innovative
Playful
Quirky
That said, there's no hard and fast rule. Find a font that speaks to you, and aligns with your brand and content.
Best Font for Your Email Signature: Frequently Asked Questions
When it comes to choosing a font for your email signature, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The font you select should be easily legible and accessible to all of your readers, web-safe and compatible across a variety of devices, and align with the overall look of your emails.
Most importantly, your email signature should reflect you and all the hard work that you put into your content– so choose a font that makes sense with what you’ve already created.
The font that you choose could potentially influence how your recipient perceives you and your brand, so it’s important to be professional and choose a web-safe font that looks great no matter how your audience is reading your emails.
Fonts like Calibri, Helvetica, or Georgia are widely used in corporate settings because of their legibility and ease of sharing information. The fonts that most people would consider unprofessional (looking at you, Comic Sans) are difficult to read and make getting the important information– like who you are and how to contact you– impossible to get across.
You can also keep it simple and use the same font that you used for the rest of your content. While that may seem boring, keeping a consistent font makes your content overall easier to read.
Attaching your signature to your email is easy!
If you are using Gmail, for example, click the pen icon to insert your signature into any email you’ve composed:
Adding your signature to beehiiv is even easier!
In settings, select Design Lab
Click Email Footer
Under Custom Content, click Add Custom Content to Footer
Add your signature to the custom footer input box
Toggle on Enable Custom Footer Content?
Click Save
Your email signature is like your business card. Include the same information that you would if you were physically interacting with your audience:
Your name
Your business name
Your business address
Your business phone number
Your website
This doesn’t just look professional- it’s the law. Under the CAN-SPAM Act, you must include a valid physical address in your email footer.
Get Started Designing Your Email Signature With beehiiv
Having a well-designed email signature shows that you are professional and that the details matter to you. Remember to choose a font that's web-safe and sends the right message for your brand. Any of the 10 best email signature fonts we discussed would make a great choice.
The sky's the limit with beehiiv's fully customizable newsletter components — in fact, there are so many options that we thought we'd provide some guidance. We want you to deliver the best first impression as well as a great send-off for every email you send.
Get started with your free trial of beehiiv today to try out the robust array of customization options and find the perfect signature font for you.
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