The actual use of web fonts is pretty straightforward, using standard HTML and CSS syntaxes. So long as the client itself supports the use of, or your choice of web font can be served with those methods and not with JavaScript, there’s a pretty good chance web fonts will show up just fine. A (really) small number of email clients support the use of web fonts provided through services like Google Web Fonts. If you want to work on the ragged edge of email technology, however, you do have a few options. While web fonts may be common in modern site design, in the world of HTML email, they’re experimental at best. Here’s a list of all widely-supported cross-platform fonts: Helvetica, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Charcoal, Lucida Console, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, Palatino Linotype, Book Antiqua, Palatino, Tahoma, Geneva, Times, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Monaco. Sans-serif: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet MS It’s best to stick with a small list of fonts known to work across all platforms, and your ideal, bullet-proof font stacks should look something like this. There are not as many monospace fonts with wide, cross-platform support. These are your best bets for serif fonts. These choices will give you good coverage, but you should include a more common one as a backup in your font stack. If you include these in your font stacks, most people will see the page correctly. These are your best bets for sans serif fonts. Heres a list of all widely-supported cross-platform fonts: Helvetica, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Charcoal, Lucida Console. Here, you’re pretty much stuck with the basic, cross-platform fonts: Sans Serif Web Safe Fonts
Like anything else with HTML email, there are some limitations. Unfortunately, you can’t just go and use an excellent font like Gotham for your copy.
Most email clients block images from first-time senders by default, so your subscribers will almost always see the print content of your email before anything else. Other trademarks, registered trademarks, product names, company names, brands and service names mentioned herein are property of Extensis or other respective owners.Typography in email is arguably more important than other design elements since type is the one thing that is consistently rendered across different email clients. This list of trademarks is not exhaustive. EXTENSIS, WebINK, and Suitcase Fusion are trademarks or registered trademarks of Extensis in the United States of America, Canada, the European Union and/or other countries. Founded in 1993, Extensis is based in Portland, Oregon, and the United Kingdom. Used by hundreds of Fortune 5000 companies, Extensis’ award-winning server, desktop, and web service products include: Portfolio Server® for digital asset management, Universal Type Server® for server-based font management, Suitcase Fusion™ for single-user font management, and the WebINK® web font rental service. Their solutions streamline workflows, securely manage digital assets and fonts, and control corporate typographic branding.
Adobe CS5 & 5.5 plug-ins remain functional for Photoshop.Įxtensis® is a leading developer of software and services for creative professionals and workgroups.
NOTE: Extensis will make a new Photoshop CS6 plug-in available as soon as an issue within Photoshop has been resolved by Adobe. Notable Extensis font management clients include: The Art Institutes, J Walter Thompson, Publicis Groupe, Simon & Schuster, Smithsonian Institution, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and USA Today.įor more information about Universal Type Server, see:
Type Server is employed across many industries including advertising and marketing agencies, broadcast and media, business, finance, retail, educational, nonprofit and government agencies.
Universal Type Server ensures efficient distribution and license compliance of fonts in creative workflows throughout the organisation.
The updates are available as a free download for Universal Type Client for both Mac OS® X and Windows®, and include plug-ins for Adobe InDesign®, Illustrator® and InCopy®*. The updates provide font auto-activation plug-ins to teams that use Adobe® Creative Suite 6 (CS6) applications. Extensis announces today the immediate availability of updates for the Universal Type Client font management software.