Why does Html font sent via TB change when received by OE?
As tests, while trying to setup of TB as I wish, I am sending myself html email, font = Tahoma 12 point, and then receiving it on two different computers, into two different email clients -- TB on one, and Outlook Express 6 on the other.
From OE to OE and also to TB: no problems -- fonts show up exactly as sent.
From TB to TB and OE: no problem when coming back to TB, but FONT CHANGES WHEN RECEIVED BY OE (to Times Roman -- a serif font, when a sans serif was composed!).
The font in question - Tahoma - is considered to be web-safe; not only that, it's the default font on my OE, so I don't understand why OE should have trouble rendering a TB email that uses that font.
I have read, in previous forum posts (from 2006 - 7), that TB does not 'tell' the recipient email client what font it would prefer. Is this true? Can it be changed? (If OE can do it, why can't TB?)
I've read posts where the idea of trying to format email is pooh-poohed; I'm sure there are myriad technical impediments involved (sure seems like it, at least with TB), but this is 2015 -- people use email for business, not just recreation, and presentation is very important in such communications.
BTW: I have checked my OE settings, to see if there is anything that would determine the font displayed on incoming emails, but I can't find anything to that effect. Tahoma is the default font there.
I'd really like to know what's causing this! I thought I was on the verge of solving this email migration/trek. . .
Thanks, in advance, for any help!
Thanks, in advance, for any help you can share!
Chosen solution
maberly said
To my surprise, it worked: OE received and displayed the email in 12 pt Tahoma!
Tahoma 12 points is your preferred font in oe, as you said. So anything without a font spec (or with Tahoma as font) would show up in that. My font-names within brackets are plain text so I new what's what. I used the roll-down font-selection. By the way, you have formating-tools turned on?
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there is never a font specification in plain text, just codepage. If you use your standard font and don't specific set it in Html, there is also no font specified. pic 1 unspecified, pic 2 specified
Modified by Gnospen
Gnospen said
there is never a font specification in plain text, just codepage. If you use your standard font and don't specific set it in Html, there is also no font specified. pic 1 unspecified, pic 2 specified
Thanks, Gnospen. So: a few questions for you, if you don't mind:
1) Did your insertion of html code, specifying the fonts listed in your attachment #2, work? 2) How would one go about inserting such html code in an ordinary (tho' html-formatted) email? 3) Would this necessitate using a template all the time? If so, it probably wouldn't apply to replies, would it?
Also:If you use your standard font and don't specific set it in Html, there is also no font specified.
So specifying "compose messages in html" within the General tab of each email account, and then specifying the html font to be used, in Tools-Options-Composition-HTML Font doesn't have any effect on the email's code?? (I ask this because I did specify all of these things in my settings, and yet my code shows no <font> tags at all.)
Thanks again -- I am, unfortunately - at this point - completely dependent upon the knowledge and goodwill of the folks here!
After spending weeks setting up and learning to use TB, I'd hate to have to now abandon it and begin again with something made by MS. </font>
Update
Very, very strange: I figured out how to use "Insert" - Html when composing a new email, and entered:
<style type="text/css"> body {font: 12pt Tahoma;} </style>
. . . and then wrote some text.
I sent this email to myself (to a different email address), quickly toggled TB to "work offline", and rushed to receive the email in OE on my other computer. To my surprise, it worked: OE received and displayed the email in 12 pt Tahoma!
Still, I really don't want to have to go through these steps every time I want to write an email (!!), so I did the same test again, this time without inserting any html at all. For some reason that is totally beyond logic, it now worked: I received the email in OE in 12 pt Tahoma. This was after having OE repeatedly receive and display it in Times Roman, all day.
What gives??! Did sending one email with inserted html code suddenly 'teach' OE what to do? Did it somehow eradicate a bug within Tbird?
(Who needs any vocation or life at all, when one can spend forever just trying to get TB to be predictable . . . . )
Any feedback on this would be very gratefully welcomed!
Thanks in advance.
Chosen Solution
maberly said
To my surprise, it worked: OE received and displayed the email in 12 pt Tahoma!
Tahoma 12 points is your preferred font in oe, as you said. So anything without a font spec (or with Tahoma as font) would show up in that. My font-names within brackets are plain text so I new what's what. I used the roll-down font-selection. By the way, you have formating-tools turned on?
Modified by Gnospen
Gnospen said
Tahoma 12 points is your preferred font in oe, as you said. So anything without a font spec (or with Tahoma as font) would show up in that.
That's why I was so surprised that it wasn't working, all day. It only started working after I inserted a test html tag in the code for it -- but I only inserted that html tag once, and then tried it again without any inserted html code -- and it kept on working. Why would it have not worked all day, and then suddenly begun to work?''
I used the roll-down font-selection.
Same here -- from the very beginning.
By the way, you have formating-tools turned on?
I hadn't heard of that Add-on until you mentioned it -- just looked it up. It looks great, but I don't see anything there that isn't -- in a more modest form -- also in the built-in Tbird compose toolbar. Does the add-on contain other useful functions?
I just re-tested my TB-out-to-OE-in situation, and (phew!) see that it's still working: TB as Tahoma is till coming through to OE Tahoma. If it stays like this, after such inexplicable and illogical behaviour, I'm afraid to add or do anything to my Tbird setup, lest it end up behaving badly again!
Surely TBird/Mozilla builders don't want to see TBird imitating Microsoft's blundering illogic. There must be a reason why my TBird's behaviour suddenly changed from illogical to proper -- any TBird builders out there who'd know why?
Thanks again!
just to clarifdy, I have three add-ons: FiltaQuilla (more filter alternatives) ImportExportTools (make it easy to import/export) MoreFunctionsForAddressBook (adds a lot of extras)