Apple has revised its technote on “printing Mail messages, wrapping text, and font sizing”.

The technote describes the three options available when printing Mail.app messages (just choose “Print” from the File menu, then change the third pop-up menu’s choice from “Copies & Pages” to “Mail”):

In short, the three options are:

1. Scale message to fit: This option prints the message exactly as it is displayed on the screen, without re-wrapping. If the message is wider than the paper size, the message is resized to fit.
2. Rewrap message to fit: This keeps the specified font size of the message and rewraps the text to fit the paper size, producing a printout that is some cases looks different to the screen view. The printout may appear smaller than its looks on the screen.
3. Keep the same apparent font size: Here Mail tries to strike a balance between screen and print points per inch and may rewrap the printout if needed. The technote suggest that “if you’re not sure which option might be best for you, try this one first.”

It’s also worth noting that this print option it “sticky” and your choice is retained until you change it again. apple technote, mail.app, apple mail, printing, font size, rewrapping, tips

Today eight people searched for “incoming mail font size small” without finding a match. Or possibly one determined person searched eight times.

If that’s you, the post you are looking for is “Setting a minimum HTML font size”.

This is a work-around that prevents incoming emails written in Outlook and Outlook Express from appearing in a very small, almost unreadable, font size in Mail.app.

It’s worth finding, especially if your mother insists on using Outlook Express.
email, font size, incoming, HTML, unreadable