Web font support in email design

Introduction

A font determines a large part of the appearance and readability of your emails. Web fonts give your brand a unique style, but in email marketing there are limitations: not all email clients, such as Outlook and Gmail, support them. That’s why it’s important to understand where web fonts work and how to set proper fallbacks.

What are web fonts?

Web fonts are fonts loaded from an external server (such as Google Fonts). Unlike system fonts (like Arial or Times New Roman), web fonts are not installed by default on every device. In Xendy, you can choose from a large selection of Google Fonts, such as Open Sans, Lato, Roboto, Poppins, and Montserrat.

Support for web fonts

Not all email clients support external web fonts (like Google Fonts). That’s why Xendy always provides automatic fallbacks: if a web font cannot be loaded, the email automatically falls back to Arial and then to Helvetica. This ensures your email remains readable and consistent.

Support level	Email clients	Note
Full	Apple Mail (macOS, iOS), Samsung Email app, Android Mail (AOSP), Thunderbird	Loads Google Fonts correctly.
Limited / Inconsistent	Outlook for Mac (new), Yahoo! Mail, Outlook.com	Google Fonts are sometimes ignored, but not consistently. Arial and Helvetica are shown when not available.
No support	Gmail (web and apps), Outlook for Windows, ProtonMail, older clients	Google Fonts are never loaded. Arial and Helvetica are always shown.

Why are they not displayed?

Many email clients block external web fonts for security and privacy reasons. Loading fonts from external servers can be seen as a risk or as a way to track open and click behaviour. Additionally, some clients use outdated rendering engines (such as Outlook for Windows with Microsoft Word), which simply do not support web fonts. For this reason, web fonts are not always displayed, and fallback fonts like Arial and Helvetica are essential for proper formatting.

Frequently asked questions