Seeing Red in E-mail?

What does it mean when they change the font to the color red? What’s wrong with using red type? Why can’t I use different font colors? The answers?

1. The sender is emphasizing those words.
2. Nothing “wrong” with using red type — just know it is risky because you leave the level of emphasis up to the other side.  More times than not, the other side will over-emphasize.
3. You can use any font colors you like as long as they don’t interfere with your message or make it more difficult to read.

When Senders change certain verbiage within an e-mail to the color red, they are making a point — and a strong point at that! The use of red to show emphasis is an extra effort taken by the Sender to make sure the Recipient understands how strongly they feel about the topic at hand.

Red is so often used as a tool to emphasize only certain points that many (handfuls) each day ask me “What did they mean by using red for certain words in their e-mail?” Usually followed by “Were they yelling at me?”

The Sender meant to make a point, to add strong emphasis and wanted to make sure those words in particular caught your attention. Yes, you could say that they were using a louder voice — but not yelling at you as typing in all caps would show. Now, typing in all red caps without a doubt reflects the Sender is clearly upset and unmistakably wants you to know that!

Red has a long history of being an aggressive color. For the ancient Romans, a red flag was a signal for battle. Because of its visibility, stop signs, stop lights, brake lights, and fire equipment are all painted red.  You are angry when you “see red”.

So, if you are “seeing red” know that the Sender clearly wanted to make a point to you — and no need to wonder what they meant by doing so.

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