How to Change Gmail's Font Settings

This article explains how to change the font color in Gmail as well as the font type, background color, and more.

Access Font Options in Gmail

To set the font, size, and other characteristics of the text while composing a message, select formatting options (the underlined A) at the bottom of the message window.

How to Change the Font in Gmail

Here's how to use the formatting options toolbar to adjust your text:

1. Highlight the text you want to change and select formatting options.

2. Select the font selector in the formatting options at the bottom of the screen and make a font selection from the list that appears. The font selector is located above Send.

3. The next option is Size, labeled with a small T and a large T. Select it and choose from the sizes available.

4. The next three options indicate bold, italic, and underlined type.

Change Font Color and Background Color in Gmail

You can also assign colors to the text of your email or the background from the formatting bar.

1. Highlight the text to which you want to change and select formatting options.

2. Select the small A to the right of the Underline button in the formatting bar to open two color palettes labeled Background color and Text color.

3. Select the color swatch for the background color of the text.

4. Select the color swatch for the text color.

Alignment and Other Text Options

The formatting bar contains a few more options, mostly related to text alignment. To reveal all the options, select the down arrow on the right end of the toolbar.

• Align text: Next to the color icon is the text-alignment button. Text within a Gmail message can be aligned to the left, center, or right using the Align button.
• Ordered and unordered lists: Make lists using the next two buttons from the left in the formatting bar. Highlight a section of text and click one of these buttons to apply either bullets or numbers.
• Indent text: Some email programs let you tab to create an indent, but that isn't supported in Gmail. Instead, use the Indent More and Indent Less buttons to move text in and out of the left side of the page. You can also use it with a list to make sublists.
• Quote: Similar to the indent option is the Quote button that makes the selected text stand out from the rest with an indentation and vertical bar.
• Strikethrough: Add a horizontal line across the text.
• Remove Formatting: Remove the custom formatting options you made and convert everything to plain text. Select the text and click this button to remove the custom color, indentations, font changes, and anything else you added.

Format Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Most of these editing tools can be accessed through Gmail keyboard shortcuts. Hover the mouse over a button in the formatting bar to see its shortcut. For example, to quickly make text bold, highlight the text and press Ctrl+B on a PC or Command+B on a Mac. Press Ctrl+Shift+7 on a PC or Command+Shift+7 on a Mac to convert text to a numbered list.

Save Your Changes as the Default

If you like the new font changes you made and want Gmail to use this formatting as the default for every message, edit the text style from the General tab of your Gmail settings.

1. In the upper-right corner of Gmail, select the Settings gear.

2. Select See all settings.

3. Go to the General tab, then scroll to the Default text style section.

4. Make the changes in this section to match the style you want for all future emails.

5. Select Save Changes at the bottom of the page.