REMOVE / FIX FONT CHANGES IN OUTLOOK

Question

REMOVE / FIX FONT CHANGES IN OUTLOOK

Jane Dahl 0

WHY WHY WHY is OUTLOOK CHANGING ALL MY FONTS when receiving emails???? WHAT CAN I DO????

GRRR!!!!!! It is creating line spaces between every line, making emails 10 times LONGER, AND changing the font on EVERY email to APTOS in 12 point font size!!! GRRR!!! Way too large, and I HATE APTOS!!!

SEND FIX!!!!!!!

Jane Dahl 0 Reputation points

2026-01-05T19:53:30.8066667+00:00

My settings show I should be sending AND receiving ALL emails in Calibri. OUTLOOK is CHANGING my font to APTOS. HOW DO I GET RID OF APTOS, and STOP OUTLOOK from changing MY SETTINGS
Anonymous

2026-01-12T14:18:53.4233333+00:00

Something to check is if you might have enabled the Immersive Reader. Open an email and click Immersive Reader at the top and then click Close Immersive Reader.
Jane Dahl 0 Reputation points

2026-01-12T16:20:18.7833333+00:00

Already checked that 'numerous' times, the immersive reader is turned OFF

2 answers

Your answer

Jane Dahl 0 Reputation points

2026-01-05T19:53:30.8066667+00:00

My settings show I should be sending AND receiving ALL emails in Calibri. OUTLOOK is CHANGING my font to APTOS. HOW DO I GET RID OF APTOS, and STOP OUTLOOK from changing MY SETTINGS
Anonymous

2026-01-12T14:18:53.4233333+00:00

Something to check is if you might have enabled the Immersive Reader. Open an email and click Immersive Reader at the top and then click Close Immersive Reader.
Jane Dahl 0 Reputation points

2026-01-12T16:20:18.7833333+00:00

Already checked that 'numerous' times, the immersive reader is turned OFF

Answer 1

Please note that our forum is a public platform, and we will modify your question to hide your personal information in the description. Kindly ensure that you hide any personal or organizational information the next time you post an error or other details to protect personal data.

Hi Jane Dahl,

I appreciate your effort so far. Based on my research, it seems Microsoft has changed Outlook’s default design/theme. In recent Microsoft 365 updates, Outlook introduced Aptos as the new default font to replace Calibri. This is part of a broader design refresh aimed at improving readability and modernizing the experience. As a result, even if you set another font, Outlook may revert to Aptos in certain scenarios.

References:

New Office theme - Microsoft Support

https://en.ittrip.xyz/ms-office/outlook/outlook-aptos-font

Note: Microsoft is providing this information as a convenience to you. These sites are not controlled by Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks before using any suggestions from the above link.

In fact, based on my own testing, even the “To” field in received emails often appears in Aptos formatting.

For incoming emails, if someone sends you a message formatted in Aptos, Outlook will display it that way to preserve the sender’s original styling.

If this behavior also affects your compose window, you can try these steps:

Open a new email in Outlook and place the cursor in the message body.
Go to Format Text tab > Change Styles > Style Set.
Under Style Set, look for an option that uses your desired font by default or a custom style set that you’ve created.
then select Set as Default.

User's image

Additional workaround for incoming unread emails

You can make unread messages easier to view by adjusting their font size:

Go to the View tab > View Settings > Conditional Formatting.
Select Unread Messages, then choose a smaller font size that suits your preference. This way, new emails will appear in a format that’s easier to read.

Finally, I highly recommend sending feedback to Microsoft via Outlook > Help > Feedback or the https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com. Upvoting similar reports helps the product team prioritize improvements. The more upvotes these reports receive, the more likely Microsoft will prioritize improvements in future updates.

As a forum moderator, I hope you understand I can’t change this behavior directly, but I truly appreciate your patience and cooperation.

I hope this gives you more insight and possible workarounds. Thank you for your understanding!

Answer 2

Anonymous

Hi Jane Dahl,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum! Have a good day and I hope you're doing well!

I completely understand how frustrating this situation can be especially when Outlook suddenly changes fonts and spacing without you asking for it. I’m really sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, and I appreciate you taking the time to describe the behavior in detail.

Based on my research and similar cases reported by other users, there are a few areas you may want to double‑check. While these suggestions may not resolve everything immediately, they’ve helped improve the situation for several people.

I. Re‑check all font and view‑related settings in Classic Outlook

Even if your font settings under File > Options > Mail look correct, Classic Outlook includes additional view‑level controls that can influence how messages are displayed.

To review those:

Go to the View tab
Click View Settings

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This area contains several options that affect message appearance, including fonts used in the reading pane and list views. It’s worth reviewing these settings carefully to ensure nothing there is overriding your expectations.

II. Check whether Immersive Reader is affecting line spacing

Regarding the extra spacing between lines (which makes messages appear much longer), this behavior strongly reminded me of Immersive Reader. If Immersive Reader is enabled, it can change line spacing and layout when viewing or opening email messages.

To double‑check:

Open an email message
Go to the View tab (or the Message tab if the spacing occurs when composing or viewing a message in its own window)
Look for Immersive Reader
If it appears highlighted or pressed, click it once to turn it off

User's image

I hope these steps help improve the behavior at least partially. Please give them a try and let me know how it goes. If I misunderstood anything in your scenario, or if something isn’t clear, feel free to reach out anytime. I’m more than happy to help further.

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Jane Dahl 0 Reputation points

2026-01-06T14:20:05.5566667+00:00

Checked all of the above, and I am still receiving emails in double spacing and changing the font to APTOS, and to 12 pt! .....why can't I get rid of that font???
Anonymous

2026-01-07T04:53:05.1233333+00:00
Hi Jane Dahl,

Thanks for your response! I understand how frustrating this can be, especially after trying multiple steps. I appreciate your effort so far.

Please try the following steps to see if the issue improves:

First, try opening Outlook in Safe Mode (Press Windows + R, type outlook.exe /safe) and check if you can adjust the font.

If it works fine in Safe Mode, please disable add-ins to rule out conflicts. Instructions are here: Start Outlook in safe mode and disable add-ins.

If Safe Mode doesn’t help, run an Office Repair: Repair an Office application.

If the issue persists, create a new Outlook profile to reset UI settings: Create an Outlook profile - Microsoft Support.

I hope these steps provide some clarity and help improve the situation. If anything remains unclear or you need further assistance, feel free to share an update.
Anonymous

2026-01-08T04:32:33.19+00:00

Hi Jane Dahl,

I hope you're doing well. Just reaching out to see if you've had a chance to review the responses shared earlier.

Any updates you can provide would be greatly appreciated. We're here to help!
Jane Dahl 0 Reputation points

2026-01-08T14:28:21.9566667+00:00

Tried the safe mode and it 'appeared' to be working until the next time I logged in. Grrr! It continues to default to APTOS 12pt AND spacing before and after paragraphs.

Here is a screenshot:
Anonymous

2026-01-12T10:50:39+00:00

Hi Jane Dahl,

We’d love to hear back from you whenever you're ready.

I wanted to check in and see if the information above was partially helpful to you.

If you still have any concerns or questions, please feel free to reach out anytime.
Jane Dahl 0 Reputation points

2026-01-12T16:18:45.31+00:00

What if I change my Outlook from classic? Would that make any difference? The DOUBLE spacing and creating my emails to be 3 pages long in a business setting is NOT acceptable!! Grrrrrr
Anonymous

2026-01-12T16:30:48.0766667+00:00

If you saw it working in Safe Mode can you try Safe Mode again and verify that works or not? If it does work in Safe Mode then that could indicate an add-in is causing the issue.

Matthew shared this earlier but if Outlook works in Safe Mode try disabling add-ins to figure out which one is causing the issue, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/i-can-t-start-microsoft-outlook-or-receive-the-error-cannot-start-microsoft-outlook-cannot-open-the-outlook-window-d1f69da6-b333-4650-97bf-4d77bd7abb85. In brief you can see the add-ins enabled by going to File, Options, Add-ins, Go. Disable any add-ins that could cause the issue and restart Outlook and test.
Jane Dahl 0 Reputation points

2026-01-12T17:02:54.5833333+00:00

I've tried all of this....still doing the DOUBLE spacing AND font changes. I can 'accept' the font changes happening at this point....I've spent more than 10 hours trying to correct this. I just can't consume my day 'correcting' it. I REALLY can't continue to send emails with the LINE SPACING adding BEFORE AND AFTER each/every paragraph.
Anonymous

2026-01-13T11:23:10.3133333+00:00

Hi Jane Dahl,

Thank you for your effort and collaboration. I truly appreciate it.

As I mentioned earlier, Aptos appears to have become the default font in Office. If someone sends you an email formatted in Aptos, Outlook will display it that way to maintain consistency with the sender’s original formatting. While you can adjust how your reading pane displays certain styles, Outlook generally respects the sender’s styling for HTML emails.

I hope this helps clarify things further. Once again, I appreciate your cooperation and the effort you’ve put into resolving this.
Dori A Schmetterling 0 Reputation points

2026-11-02T12:13:51.2333333+00:00

In my case the problem is in the Contacts/address book. My custom default font Verdana 10 pt has been changed to Aptos 12 pt for existing contacts, something I noticed when recently installing M365 on my new Windows 11 computer, having been on Win 10.
I have checked all the settings, they are all on Verdana 10 pt. New entries are in the correct font.

How do I force a change back on all my existing contacts?

BTW, Aptos is NOT an improvement over Calibri or Arial. It still fails to distinguish between I (capital 'eye') and lower case l ('ell').
Good examples are the German city of Illertissen...and Illness in English. (Yes, one can guess which is which here, but it is not always that simple.)

Hence my preference for Verdana for 'normal' typing and Tahoma where a narrower typeface is desirable. On top of that, both have been widely available on many platforms for decades.
(Can't demonstrate the difference here because the typeface is fixed - try it at home...)