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We have been trying to Use 'Open Sans' google font in out email templates using @font face and @media screen(To add the 'open sans' font).But still no use!

We tried sending a sample email with text in Open sans font but though it shows as Open sans in outlook and Gmail.It is not as you can see in the screnshot.

so it even possible to uses "Open Sans" font in emails??enter image description here

Vinith
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  • This question has been asked repeatedly over the last month. – gwally Nov 01 '17 at 19:50
  • @gwally He didn't ask if "Google Web Fonts" could be used. This question is specifically about the Open Sans font. I don't know if other web fonts have been successfully used but I have not been able to get Open Sans to work in gmail (using ie or chrome), outlook, or iPhone. – BVernon Nov 02 '17 at 18:26
  • Open Sans is a Google web font. It is not a web safe font, meaning it does not come pre-loaded on most devices. There could be other font houses offering the font as well. My point is that any font that needs to be displayed by linking to an external source will not work in Gmail and most likely not work with Outlook because web font support is spotty and full of issues. – gwally Nov 02 '17 at 19:31

2 Answers2

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It is absolutely possible to send out an email with Open Sans. Many email clients work with Google Web Fonts. A noted exception is gmail, which at this time does not work with any web fonts.

Other exceptions include Outlook, but it varies by font name.

What you need to do is choose a web safe font as a fallback. For instance, Arial or maybe Trebuchet.

These links will give you a better understanding of web fonts and how to use them in email.

Good luck.

gwally
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  • we did try using this solution https://litmus.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-web-fonts.It uses fallback font font and just ignores Open Sans – Vinith Nov 01 '17 at 19:58
  • Until Gmail supports web fonts, it's never going to work. Fallback fonts work fine in Gmail so long as you choose a web safe font. In my case I use Arial as a fallback for Gotham. I also use a fallback for Outlook, but I don't do it the way Litmus suggests. I target P, td using the ` – gwally Nov 01 '17 at 22:38
  • @gwally Can you name an email client that will support Open Sans? – BVernon Nov 02 '17 at 18:27
  • @gwally Or even better I would love to see a screen shot of the Open Sans font being displayed in an email client. So far I've found 0 evidence that it can be done. I haven't tried on an Android device yet though but if that's the only device that will display it then I think it's kind of silly to say that it's generally possible to use it. – BVernon Nov 02 '17 at 18:32
  • Note that when I said "0 evidence", I know there are tons of people explaining how to do it on the web. But I've seen no proof that it actually works. – BVernon Nov 02 '17 at 18:33
  • @BVernon IOS, Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Yahoo! all support web fonts. Android does not support web fonts. – gwally Nov 02 '17 at 19:27
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You should use as simple HTML code as possible and I recommend to use just simple inline CSS. This as you have almost no control on how the very different email clients will render your code. Some do block JavaScript for security reasons, some are not capable to display animated gifs or do block any content you want to load into your mail due to privacy reasons etc.

So I assume that Outlook will block external fonts as it does for external images etc. I suggest to use simple 'font instructions' and common fonts resulting in things like "font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif;" Especially 'sans-serif' will work as a fall back scenario if the other fonts are not available.

See also: https://www.w3schools.com/cssref/css_websafe_fonts.asp

ikellenberger
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