Unable to change the default font in Mail on macOS Tahoe

Fix for Helvetica Condensed showing up in Apple Mail after upgrading macOS

I ran into an issue where all my incoming emails suddenly displayed in Helvetica Condensed, even after changing Mail’s font settings. The fix turned out to be very simple:

Open Font Book.

Find the Helvetica family.

Right-click and choose Remove “Helvetica” Family (or “Remove Non-System Fonts” if that appears).

Confirm the dialog that says it will remove only non-system fonts.

Restart Mail.

This removed the extra Helvetica fonts I had installed (leaving the protected system versions intact), and Mail immediately went back to displaying text normally.

No need to drag fonts around or mess with Terminal — just right-click, remove, and restart.

Hi Bruce - apologies if you already read my post but I managed to rectify the issue. I was having exactly the same problem as you after the Tahoe upgrade. It's not a perfect solution but it certainly helps. I opened 'font book' and searched for the offending chunky font (in my case it was .black oblique), highlighted it and deleted it. However, it has also deleted helvetica from my fonts - but I still have helvetica neue. I then went back into mail and then settings, fonts and colours and then I was able to change the message font. I have tested it and both incoming and outgoing messages are no longer CHUNKY. I hope this helps - it was driving me mad!

UPDATE - I was able to reinstall 'helvetica' and it has not affected the mail font. I pulled it from the trash to the desktop and then dragged it into 'font book'. It is now available in all my apps and so we're back to good! Hope this helps. I'm sure there will be a few more people scratching their heads over this.

Bruce Kieffer wrote:

How do I use a different font as my default Apple Mail font? I've tried changing it in the Mail settings, but it does not stick. This condensed bold font that Mail uses as the default now is too chunky for me and it's hard to read. I can change it on a case-by-case basis, but I want a different default font.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/fd01e408-c58b-4eda-ad84-6303f60d23f9

[Edited by Moderator]

I had what seems like the same issue, and this fixed it for me:

After updating to macOS 26, the font in Apple mail defaulted to Helvetica Black Oblique... Not just when composing an email, but everywhere.

When composing an email, I could select text and change the font to anything EXCEPT Helvetica Regular. If I tied to select Helvetica Regular, it would just stay on Black Oblique.

So I went into Fontbook, deleted Helvetica Black Oblique, restarted mail and everything is back to normal.

It doesn't Tom. It's so weird. It definitely feels like a glitch of some kind. I was able to change the font by selecting all after writing the message but that's not ideal as it resets every time. When I go into 'fonts and colours' in the mail settings, if I try to change the 'message font' it won't allow me to select anything - if I click on 'regular' it just jumps down to the 'chunky' font so I can't alter it.

BUT - and again this is certainly not ideal - I went into 'Font Book' and deleted the 'chunky' helvetica font - which has also deleted 'helvetica' completely. This has worked and I am now able to compose a message using a less dramatic font to send emails to my plumber! Reading other user messages, their issue is exactly the same as mine. I also had an issue with safari after the upgrade - if I clicked on it in the dock, it didn't genie up any of the open pages but that did rectify itself after a shut down - in case anyone else is experiencing that.

I've just disabled in the Fonts App Helvetica Condensed and all new messages start in Helvetica Regular

Have you tried restarting your Mac?

For me, changing the default font in Settings works as expected for newly created emails.

What happens when you actually type something? The window on an empty msg can be inaccurate.

Bruce Kieffer wrote:

I have changed it, but it goes back to the chunky bold font when I start a new email.

What is your Message Font set to now?

And when you start typing in the new message pane, you still get your earlier picture?

I'm having the same issue. Incoming emails are displayed with that same 'chunky' font and also when I write an email. I can't change the default either. Having to use my iPhone to compose messages atm - I know, first world problems and all.

dcadan wrote:

I'm having the same issue. Incoming emails are displayed with that same 'chunky' font and also when I write an email. I can't change the default either.

Can you change the font in the new message pane manually each time?

I am having the same exact issue in Mail. However, my Mail font defaults to Helvetica Narrow. Changing the default font in settings does nothing.

If I attempt to select Helvetica Regular it will change to Times Regular. If I select any other it may correctly change to that.

Have reset fonts, moved them in and out. I have deleted all other instances of non system Helvetica fonts.

Running a check shows an issue with N Helvetica Narrow? Helvetica.ttc shows green. I'm having a few other Tahoe issues, they seem unrelated.

I switched it to Helvetica Neue just so I don't go crazy.

I am having the same problem.

When replying to emails or creating new ones, regular Helvetica is not an option, even though it is my default in the settings for mail. Instead it defaulted to a condensed bold version that is impossible to read. I could change the font to basic Helvetica so I have been choosing a "Condensed Light" or "Condensed medium" which is legible.

I read the top comments here and went to font book and checked out Helvetica fonts intstalled on my system and found 3 results when I typed Helvetica in the search bar:

Helvetica

Helvetica CY

Helvetica Neue

When I went to Helvetica, and right clicked on each of the options only one was removable, which I think was the condensed bold or whatever that my mail had been defaulting to. I removed it and the email now is using Condensed Medium by default (which is still not the right font set in the settings) and I still can't change it to regular helvetica in the email font list. I still have regular helvetica selected in settings.

This is just a bug I guess. Please advise me. I just upgraded to Tahoe 26.0.1

@brentvideo — Just logged in to say, "I love you."

Thank you, ever so much. This had been killing me for the past week after a Tahoe update. I had found some 'advice' on Reddit (!) that indicated i needed to reset my entire fonts list and reinstall (thousands). So glad i didn't go through with that.

This fixed me up, 'right quick.'

Setting the Message font in the Fonts & Colors settings should normally do the trick. Does it not conform to that once you start typing?