What Font Does Slack Use? Lato in the App, Salesforce Sans on the Site

Slack uses Lato for messages, channel names and menus in the desktop app and in the browser. Code and code blocks use Roboto Mono, with Monaco, Menlo or Consolas as backups. The slack.com website is different: body text is Salesforce Sans and headlines are Salesforce Avant Garde. The Slack logo wordmark is custom lettering, so there is no font file to download. You can change the app font in Preferences, Appearance, Font, where Slack offers 10 fonts.

We checked all of this on 28 September by reading the computed CSS in app.slack.com and the stylesheets on slack.com, and by opening the Font menu in a real workspace. Several pages that rank for this question say Slack uses your system font or Larsseit. The app itself says otherwise, and the script below lets you check it in under a minute.

Which font Slack uses where

A few details from the CSS:

• • Lato is the default, and Slack hosts its own copy. The app loads it under the name Slack-Lato in the regular, bold and black weights. Lato is a free typeface by Łukasz Dziedzic under the SIL Open Font License, so you can download it from Google Fonts and use it in your own work.
• • A second Slack font sits behind Lato. Slack-Fractions is next in the stack, then appleLogo, then the system sans-serif.
• • Code has its own stack. The app sets --font-family-monospace to "Slack-Roboto-Mono", "Monaco", "Menlo", "Consolas", "Courier New", monospace. That is why a code block looks the same on a Mac and a Windows PC. How to make one is in how to make a code block in Slack.
• • Other scripts get other fonts. For Japanese, Korean and Chinese text the site loads Noto Sans JP, KR, SC and TC.

Slack logo font and brand font

The lowercase "slack" wordmark next to the colored hash mark is drawn lettering, not a font you can type with. Use the official logo files from Slack's media kit instead of rebuilding the word in a font.

The brand typefaces on slack.com today are Salesforce Sans and Salesforce Avant Garde. Both are Salesforce's own fonts and are not for public download. If you want a similar look for a slide or a mockup, Lato is the closest free match to what people see in the Slack app every day.

How to change the font in Slack

• Click your profile picture in the sidebar of the desktop app, or of Slack in a browser.
• Choose Preferences, then Appearance.
• Open the Font menu at the top and pick a font.
• Close Preferences to go back to Slack.


Slack's help center says the font setting is desktop only, works for Latin-based languages, and applies to both the desktop app and the browser. If you are in several workspaces, you set it in each one. The change affects only what you see; your coworkers still see their own font.

The same Appearance page has Custom theme, where you can set your own colors or import a theme string, as tested in Slack themes, for example a Halloween or Christmas theme from holiday Slack profile pictures. To make text bigger or smaller instead, use zoom. That is covered in how to change font size in Slack.

All 10 Slack font options

These are the entries in the Font menu, in Slack's order:

Check the font yourself in a browser

You can confirm the font on your own machine. Open Slack in Chrome, Edge or Firefox at app.slack.com, open the developer tools console (in Chrome, Cmd+Option+J on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows), and paste:

// Font stack for message text
console.log(getComputedStyle(document.body).fontFamily);

// Font stack for code
console.log(getComputedStyle(document.documentElement).getPropertyValue("--font-family-monospace"));

// Font files the page has actually loaded
console.log([...new Set([...document.fonts].filter(f => f.status === "loaded").map(f => f.family))]);

With the default setting the first line prints Slack-Lato, Slack-Fractions, appleLogo, sans-serif. After you pick another font in Preferences, run it again to see the new stack. The script only reads styles; it changes nothing.

Can you change the font of a Slack message?

No. Everyone sees messages in the font they picked for themselves, so you cannot send a message in Georgia or Comic Sans. What you can change is the formatting: bold, _italic_, strikethrough, underline, inline code and code blocks. Our free Markdown to Slack converter converts standard Markdown into Slack's format and shows how the message will look before you send it.

Two things to know about formatting:

• In the message composer, Slack's help now lists [your text](the link) links for markup mode, an Underline button (Cmd+U on a Mac) and an Apply markdown formatting shortcut, Cmd+Shift+F on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+F on Windows.

• In bot and API messages (mrkdwn), links still need the <https://example.com|text> form, and there is no underline.

Sites that promise "Slack fonts" usually swap your letters for Unicode look-alikes such as 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝 or 𝓈𝒸𝓇𝒾𝓅𝓉. They show up in Slack, but screen readers read them letter by letter as math symbols and Slack search will not find the plain word. Use real formatting instead, as shown in how to bold text in Slack and how to underline in Slack.

FAQ

What font is the Slack logo?

Custom lettering, not a downloadable font. Use the logo files from Slack's media kit.

Can I change the font on the Slack mobile app?

No. Slack's help says the font setting is desktop only. For bigger text on a phone, see how to change font size in Slack.

Can I use a font that is not in the list?

Not in the Slack app. The menu has 10 fixed options.

Why does my Slack font look different after an update?

Check Preferences, Appearance, Font; the setting may have changed or be set per workspace. If only the size changed, reset zoom with Cmd+0 or Ctrl+0.