Does Size Matter? | Business Email Etiquette

A site visitor inquires:

Does the font size matter in an e-mail? What I mean is if your font is large does it also mean that the person is yelling or screaming at you? I have a coworker who does this and am not sure how to take it…

How is the larger font is used? Is it the entire e-mail or just certain words/terms?

Unless the sender or recipient is vision impaired and requires the larger font size so they can see better, anything larger than the standard default font size can be perceived as adding emphasis. Otherwise why would one make the font larger?

If one is visioned impaired and having a larger font makes it easier for them, then all they need to do is make the font larger for when they type their message and then reduce it back to default when they send.

This is all about perception and trying to determine one’s intent by how they choose to communicate with their e-mail. Including the courtesy to return the font to a normal size if you are increasing it purely for your own benefit it one of those efforts that should be made.

Since it takes a manual setting change to increase font size (and can make your e-mail spammy and cause it to be misidentified as spam and possibly blocked) — folks will wonder what the reason is for doing so just as you did. And if certain words or phrases ares much larger, yes, one can assume the sender meant to yell or scream — or at the very least add strong emphasis.

As I always recommend, rely on the words you use for intent and tone — not formatting and you’ll never be misunderstood!