How to Change Gmail's Font Settings

Emails sent through Gmail do not have to be boring and lifeless. It's very easy to make changes to the text so that you can use a custom font size, pick a new font type and even change the text background.

Custom font changes work with all types of messages, whether you're replying, forwarding or composing new email. Combine these font changes with a custom email signature and you've got yourself a fancy new way to send email!

Change Gmail's Font Type, Size, Color and Background Color

It's really easy to change these details for existing words in the message as well as for new text that you add in.

Tip: If you love the new font changes you make and would like to have Gmail use them as the defaults for every message, edit the text style from the General tab of your email settings.

1. Highlight the text you want to change or set the options before you start writing.
2. The options for changing the font type, size and color, and making lists or indenting text, are all located at the bottom of the message editor.
   Change the font type: Use the font button right above the Send button to change the font in Gmail. Your options include Narrow, Georgia, Verdana, Wide, Serif, Sans Serif, Comic Sans MS and others.
   Adjust the font size: The second button on the bottom menu lets you change Gmail's font size between small, normal, large and huge.
   Format the text: The next three buttons let you apply a bold, italic or underlined formatting to the message text.
   Pick a different text or background color: The small "A" icon from the editor menu lets you pick custom colors. The text color can be changed as well as the background color behind the text. For example, you can make Gmail use a blue background and yellow text.
   Align the text: Text within a Gmail message can be aligned to the left, center or right with the Align button.
   Make ordered or unordered lists: The next two buttons in the progression from the left of the editor menu lets you make numbered or bulleted lists. You can quickly apply these formatting options to text by highlighting them and then choosing a list option.
   Indent text: Some email programs let you tab over to indent but that isn't supported in Gmail. Instead, you can use the Indent buttons to move text in and out of the left side of the page. You can even use it with a list to make sub-lists.
   Quote, text: Similar to the indent option is the Quote button that will make particular text stand out from the rest with a little indentation and vertical bar.
   Remove all the custom formatting: The very last button in the editor lets you remove all the custom formatting options you made, converting anything back to plain text. Highlight any text and click this button to remove the custom color, indentations, font, etc.
   Strikethrough in Gmail: The option to add a strikethrough effect to text in a Gmail message is not natively supported. However, you can install the strikethrough extension for Chrome to add this option to the editor menu.

Note: Most of these editing tools can be accessed through keyboard shortcuts. Hover the mouse over an option to see what its shortcut is. For example, to quickly make something bold, hit Ctrl+B, or Ctrl+Shift+7 to convert the text into a numbered list.