Why is Gmail rich-text formatting so inconsistent when replied to via Outlook?

Question

I use the Gmail web client with rich-text and often find that my emails look to be formatted consistently when I send them, however when Outlook users reply, the text in my original email often has different formatting from line to line - sometimes with different colours and usually with different fonts.

I then wonder if the Outlook users are receiving my original email with inconsistent formatting, or if Outlook is doing something to break the formatting when it creates the reply.

I guess it's possible that this could be a labs related issue, but I haven't tested it very much. It does seem to be only an issue when emailing with Outlook users.

I've set my default text styling according to this Google Lab feature: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-in-labs-default-text-styling.html

Curious if this is a known issue/bug between how Gmail handles formatting and how Outlook handles formatting: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=7b468e78dd0771b4&hl=en

Answer 1

Yes, we're aware of some problems with formatting between Gmail and Outlook. You can follow this discussion in the Gmail Help Forum.

Some folks have reported that turning off Default Text Styling and/or Signature Tweaks helps.