The Default Arial Dilemma
When you create a brand new document in Google Docs, the text defaults to the Arial font at size 11. If your company uses Times New Roman for all official correspondence, or if you personally prefer the modern look of Roboto or Open Sans, you probably find yourself manually changing the font style every single time you click “New Document.”
Constantly reformatting your text is tedious and wastes time. Instead of fighting the default settings on a document-by-document basis, you can permanently change Google Docs’ underlying template so that every new document you create automatically starts with your preferred font, size, and spacing.
How to Stop Docs from Defaulting to Arial
You must update your “Normal text” style to permanently change the default font.
- Open a new or existing document in Google Docs.
- Type a few words (e.g., “Sample Text”).
- Highlight that text and use the top toolbar to change the font, size, color, and line spacing to exactly what you want your new default to be (e.g., Times New Roman, Size 12).
- With that perfectly formatted text still highlighted, click on the Format menu at the top.
- Hover over Paragraph styles, then hover over Normal text, and select Update ‘Normal text’ to match. (This updates the current document).
- Now, to make it permanent for all future documents: Click the Format menu again.
- Hover over Paragraph styles, then hover over Options.
- Click on Save as my default styles.
From now on, whenever you create a blank Google Doc, it will automatically use your custom font style, completely ignoring the standard Arial default.