How to set and use branding fonts

Overview

You can specify up to nine colors and unlimited fonts to be displayed prominently anywhere color or font* pickers appear in Sendlane; including the email builder, form builder, and reviews. Read on to learn how to set brand colors and fonts!

*Branding fonts are not available for email subscription pages.

In this guide

• Brand font limitations
• Font fallbacks ensure your email is legible
• Import a Google font
• Import an Adobe font
• Import a custom font file
• How to use a branding font
• Troubleshooting

Brand font limitations

Fonts are stored as files on mobile and desktop devices. All desktop computers and mobile devices ship with some pre-installed fonts. This means there is a (relatively small) collection of fonts you can reasonably expect all of your contacts’ devices to have installed. When contacts receive emails that use fonts installed on their device, the font loads quickly and easily because the device does not have to take the extra step to fetch the font from the email.

Unfortunately, sometimes imported fonts don’t display as expected on certain devices and email apps. In those cases, contacts will see the fallback font you select when you import a font.

You may have heard certain fonts described as “email-safe fonts,” but this is a marketing term used to describe commonly installed fonts. It does not guarantee that the fonts described as “email-safe” will render successfully in all email client and device configurations.

Sendlane’s default font options are all commonly installed fonts that generally load without issue. However, because of the many variations possible for email client and device configurations, it is always possible that a few emails will render a fallback option instead of your preferred font.

Select a web safe font to ensure your custom font is displayed correctly. You can use CSS Font Stack to see a collection of widely installed fonts that should render correctly on your contacts’ devices and Can I Email for community developed information about email client font support (Sendlane does not control either of these resources).

The following email apps support brand fonts:

• Apple Mail - macOS and iOS
• Samsung Mail - Android 8.0 and up
• Outlook for Mac

Font fallbacks ensure your email is legible

Font fallbacks are alternative fonts known to be widely supported across various inbox apps and devices. Fallback fonts will be used in your email if your primary font is unavailable for a contact’s device or mail app. Select a fallback option that most closely resembles your custom font.

Font fallbacks are tried in the order they appear. In the example below, the email will first try to use Arial if the primary font fails. If Arial fails, then Helvetica will be tried. If both Arial and Helvetica fail, then Futura will be tried.

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Import a Google font

1. Click the Account icon
2. Click Branding
3. Click the + Font button
4. Select a font from the dropdown
5. Select font variants to import
6. Select font fallbacks from the dropdown menus (optionally, add additional font fallbacks by clicking + Font Fallback)
7. Click Save

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Import an Adobe font

1. Click the Account icon
2. Click Branding
3. Click the + Font button
4. Click the Adobe tab of the slideout
5. Paste your Adobe font URL; the slideout should process your font URL nearly instantly and include all font variants
6. Set font fallbacks
7. Click Save

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Import a custom font file

1. Click the Account icon
2. Click Branding
3. Click the + Font button
4. Click the Custom Import tab of the slideout
5. Enter a name for your font
6. Click the + Variant button to select an .OTF, .TFF, or .WOFF file from your computer (do NOT create another custom font for additional variants; variants must be added under the original custom font import)
7. Set font fallbacks
8. Check the box confirming you have permission to use your custom font for marketing purposes
9. Click Save

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How to use a branding font

You can change text in any email, form, or reviews widget to a branding font.

When you select your branding font, you'll first select the family (the name of your font), then select a font weight (the bold icon defaults to the 700 weight of your font). If you've added variants that include italic options, use the italic button in the text menu to apply them:

Troubleshooting

My custom fonts aren't being applied in the email builder OR my custom fonts are loading on some devices but not others.

If you are trying to select a custom font and your text isn't changing, you likely have multiple separate uploads of the same custom font family. All custom font variants should be uploaded via the original font's entry on your branding page.

Brand fonts rendering on some devices but not others is normal, but can also be caused by having multiple versions of the same font installed in separate instances.

If you see multiple versions of the same font, as shown below in the lefthand column, delete all but one. Then, review the instructions for importing a custom font file and see step 6 for instructions on adding variants to custom fonts.

Incorrectly uploaded custom font variants	Correctly uploaded custom font variants