Change the default font of email messages text in Windows Mail

As we show in one of the previous Windows Mail tutorials, there are two types of emails you are likely to receive: either "plain text", messages that do not include any kind of text color, formatting, or pictures, or the second kind of emails - the so called a "rich text formatting", or HTML, messages. In the case of a richly formatted email message, the colors and fonts used in the email are determined by the HTML code behind the scenes. In the case of a plain text email however, it is Windows Mail which will determine what fonts to use for the email contents text. And the font to uses is something you can customize, as will show you in this tutorial. This tutorial will also show you how to change the default font of outgoing emails, in other words the font you use when composing email messages from Windows Mail.

Change the default font of incoming email messages in Windows Mail

Follow these simple steps to change the default font of your emails:

• When you're in Windows Mail, click on the Tools menu
• Choose "Options"
• When the Options dialog opens, click on the "Read" tab
• Under the "Fonts" section, click on the "Fonts" button
• Windows Vista will open a dialog that lets you pick a font family, a font size, etc Make your choice, and click OK.
• You have just customized the font Windows Mail will use for incoming plain text messages! The next section explains how to change the font of emails you write yourself, from within Windows Mail.

Change the default font for emails you compose from Windows Mail

Without closing the Options dialog we opened in the first part of this tutorial, here is how you change the default font Windows Mail will use for email messages you compose yourself:

• Still inside the Options dialog, click on the "Compose" tab
• Then, click on the "Font Settings" button
• Choose a font family, a font style, a font size, and a text color; click "OK" to accept this new font setting that will be applied to emails you send.
• You are still in the Options dialog, so click on the OK button to dismiss it, apply your new fonts settings, and return to Windows Mail.
• The next email you compose from within Windows Mail will use the font family, font size, and text color you just customized!
• Note that the font family, the font size, and the color of the text, can all be customized from within a new email window in Windows Mail (using the formatting toolbar).

This concludes our Windows Mail tutorial on default email text fonts; you now know how easily you can change the font of incoming mail messages (emails you receive), and the text font of outgoing email messages (emails you compose and send yourself).