The Persistent Arial
Google Docs utilizes Arial 11pt as its absolute baseline, default font. Whenever you create a brand new, blank document, the cursor will always start blinking in Arial 11. Many users prefer a different aesthetic (such as Times New Roman for academic papers or Roboto for modern reports) and will highlight all their text to change it. However, if you accidentally hit the “Clear Formatting” button (Ctrl+\), or if you copy and paste text from a plain text editor without matching the destination style, Google Docs will automatically aggressively revert that specific text back to the default Arial font.
Establishing a New Baseline
To save time and stop Google Docs from automatically changing your text back to the default font when you clear formatting, you must permanently redefine what the “default” font is for your entire account.
Open a new or existing Google Doc. Type a single sentence. Highlight that sentence. Using the top toolbar, change the font to your preferred style (e.g., Times New Roman), the size to your preferred size (e.g., 12pt), and set the line spacing if desired. Ensure the text is still highlighted. Now, go to the top menu bar and click Format > Paragraph styles > Normal text, and click Update ‘Normal text’ to match. Next, go back to Format > Paragraph styles > Options, and click Save as my default styles. From now on, every new document you create will use this new font, and clearing formatting will revert text to this new style, not Arial.