I can change these each time I compose an email, but my old Mac let me format mail so I didn't have to redo each time. Yes, I rebooted. No, I cannot start up in Safe Mode.
iMac 24″, macOS 15.6
From the menu bar:
Mail > Settings
Set Message font: to the font and size you want to use. All future emails you compose will use that setting. Be sure not to use an oddball font the recipients may not have on their end.
dianafromtalent wrote:
Thank you so much—I can't believe I missed that!
Note that if you want your recipient to see Optima, you normally always do have to set that for each outgoing individually. The choice you make in Mail > Settings only affects what you see on your machine.
Thank you, but that's the menu option I had on my old iMac. There is no such setting on the new one and the default font is my least favorite as it's not as readable as Optima.
It can't be the "old" menu. I took that screen shot in the latest version of Mail under Sequoia.
If you want to use Optima, that's what the Select button is for.
This is what I have in mail. If I go to Show Fonts and set to Optima 14, it works for one email, then reverts to Helvetica 12 each time. I've done it again and again.
And yes, I can select each new email. I didn't have to on my old iMac. And don't have to on MacBookPro.
You're in the wrong place. With Mail open and in the foreground, go to the menu bar and choose Mail > Settings to get the palette displayed above.
Set Optima 14 there to make it the default.
Thank you so much—I can't believe I missed that!
Diana
You're welcome. 🙂
Edit: Yes, it does work, despite there not being an option under the Composing tab. I set the Message font preference to American Typewriter 14 point, and that is now how all new emails start.
Change font and type size in mail on a new iMac 2024.
