Mailed it!
I read your Best Mail Alternatives ( MF291) with interest, as I have never been a fan of Apple Mail and was delighted to see you recommend Postbox. I am a Postbox user, but you don’t mention in your article its ability to display and compose messages in one font size, yet send them in another.
My eyesight isn’t brilliant, but Mail is the only app where I struggle to read the text on the screen. I know with many email apps you can use the and the + key to zoom in, but this is rather solution. If I use a larger font size, it means the recipients also receive my emails in that font size, and as someone who is self-employed it worried me that this would not look very professional. I used to compose my messages in font size 16, and when I was ready to send it I would then change it down to 12. But I lost count of the number of times I forgot to do this, hitting send before reformatting. Then one day a client replied saying that although I hadn’t used capitals, my size 16 font size in emails made him think I was shouting!
Postbox resolves this problem. It has two font size settings – one for display purposes (both reading and writing emails) and one for when you actually come to send the email. It’s such a simple idea, but one Mail and other apps (including those you also tested in your feature) haven’t cottoned onto yet. Although I’ve sent emails to Apple pointing this out, there seems little sign of them actually taking on board comments from users. Then again, perhaps I should send them an email using a larger font size, so they can actually read what I’ve written on the screen! Simon Whaley Alex Blake says… A great tip,Simon, and yes it seems to be a feature that’s not often explored in email apps. As you say, Postbox has Display Font and Composition Font choices. The Display Font controls the size on non-HTML formatted messages that you receive as well as those you compose yourself. Composition Font determines how your recipient sees the message, and it’s not just font size either. Postbox allows message recipients to see messages with a different font, colour or background too.