Office Settings & Configuration

Fix Outlook Signature Not Preserving Expanded Font Spacing

Maira Mehtab Sep 21, 2026 868 views

Question details

Users are experiencing an issue where custom email signatures lose their expanded font spacing formatting upon being received by the recipient.

Product: Microsoft Outlook
Device & OS: Windows, iOS
Scenario: Sending emails using a customized signature that incorporates expanded font spacing (e.g., 2.5-point spacing on fonts like Verdana or Aptos).
Observed behavior: The signature's expanded font spacing appears correct in drafts, signature previews, Outlook for iOS, and reply previews, but the spacing resets to normal when the sent message is actually received.

Before you start

Ensure that your Outlook desktop client, mobile app, operating system, and Microsoft Office suite are updated to their latest versions to rule out previously patched software bugs.

Solution 1Recommended

Report the Rendering Defect to Microsoft Support

Because this issue persists across multiple devices, fonts, and the web client, it is likely a core rendering defect. Contacting Microsoft Support is the best course of action to have the defect officially logged and investigated.

Outlook utilizes a specific HTML rendering engine that can sometimes strip advanced typographical formatting, such as expanded font spacing, during the transit or display process. If standard troubleshooting fails, the Microsoft team needs to investigate the backend logs.

Access the Admin Center

Navigate to Support

On the left-hand navigation menu, locate and click on 'Support'.

Create a New Request

Select 'New service request' from the dropdown menu to open a support ticket.

Provide Issue Details

Describe the signature font spacing issue in detail, noting that it affects multiple fonts (like Verdana and Aptos) and platforms, so the technical team can accurately collect logs.

Solution 2

Recreate and Test the Signature Across Platforms

Creating a completely new signature from scratch and testing it across different versions of Outlook can help determine if the problem is specific to a corrupted Microsoft template or the desktop client.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my Outlook signature formatting look different after sending?

Outlook utilizes Word's HTML rendering engine to process emails. During the sending or receiving phase, certain advanced typography features like expanded character spacing or custom line heights may be stripped out or reset to default values to maintain basic compatibility across different email clients.

Is the font spacing issue specific to certain fonts?

No. Users have documented this exact spacing problem across multiple standard and newer fonts, including Verdana and Aptos. This indicates the issue stems from how Outlook handles the expanded spacing attribute, rather than a problem with the font files themselves.

Can I prevent Outlook from changing my signature's spacing?

If precise typographical spacing is strictly required for brand compliance and standard text formatting fails, a common workaround is to design the text portion of the signature as a high-quality image and insert that image into the signature block. Note that this will increase the overall email size.

Does using an Outlook signature template cause this bug?

While the issue is frequently observed when modifying templates like Microsoft's 'Bold classic email signature', testing shows that creating the signature completely from scratch often yields the same rendering defect, confirming it is an overarching client limitation.

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