Choose fancy fonts at your own risk
A new study by Wichita State University shows that people who use flowery fonts in their e-mail are less likely to be taken seriously by readers. Choose the wrong font and you risk being seen as less professional, stable and practical, and more rebellious and youthful.
Researchers gauged reader reaction to a business e-mail message displayed in three fonts: Calibri, a "clear-type" font available in Windows Vista and Office 2007; Comic Sans, which is sort of between serious and goofy; and Gigi, a font that looks a lot like cursive handwriting.
Dawn Shaikh, a graduate research assistant at Wichita State University, says reaction to Calibri and Comic Sans was similar. But readers didn't think too highly of the message written in Gigi.