In his younger days, he had no scars on his chest, donned an open dark gray vest, as well as a black bandanna, and his trademark mustache was nonexistent. Later in his life, he grew the prominent crescent-shaped mustache, which would spawn his epithet, "Whitebeard". When he was 52, he wore a blue and yellow pirate hat with his jolly roger on it over a black bandana with black and red, both worn over long, blond flowing hair he had back then.
Whitebeard was an abnormally large human, roughly three times the size of a normal human. Unlike other large-sized humans, however, he was well-proportioned. He had a long face, ploughed because of the advanced age with many wrinkles around his eyes, and was very muscular. The muscles on his biceps in particular seemed to grow bigger whenever he used his quake-based powers. He had many scars running along his chest; one, in particular, he got from Roger. Like all of his men, he had his own Jolly Roger tattooed on his back. In the manga, his eyes are brown, but in the anime, his eye color is seen to be yellow.
He wore a black bandanna around his head and adorned himself with a white captain's coat which hung loosely from his broad shoulders and bore his Jolly Roger symbol. He was always seen bare-chested, and wore light, loose pants tucked inside his large black boots, and a dark pirate sash around his waist. While not in battle, Whitebeard was typically on oxygen and attached to several medical sensor machines, due to health issues concerning his age.
In the manga, after Akainu melted off a portion of his face, Whitebeard lost his left eye and the left side of his mustache (this was changed to just losing the left side of his mustache in the anime) as well as a massive hole in his torso (a second, bigger hole in the stomach was also dealt by Akainu in the anime). However, for the entire 72 years that he lived, he had never once received a wound on his back, because he never ran away from his battles.
As a child, he wore a light colored sleeveless shirt, with black writting on it. He also wore shorts, and a white bandanna. He was shown with scrapes, cuts, and bandages, from his fights.
Edward Newgate seemed to be a cheerful and carefree person during his younger years (before he commanded his own ship and became known as Whitebeard). Unlike his comrades who loved treasure and riches, Newgate only desired a family and saw that as the greatest treasure.
His reign on the sea, reputation and foreboding power made him seemingly overconfident and fearless (to the point of making it seem that he considered admirals, Shichibukai and other Yonko to be annoyances more than legitimate threats). In initial appearances, he seemed unable to see any cause for alarm on any decision he made and refused all advice given to him (from his nurse telling him not to drink heavily or Shanks warning him of Blackbeard). However, later revelations showed that he was much more thoughtful than he appeared to be. Actions that initially seem to be the result of thoughtless, headstrong bravado actually had strong reasons behind them (his loud declaration that Fishman Island belonged to him freed the island from all pirates and slavery, and his insistence that Blackbeard be punished was merely a cover for Ace, who had set out after him against Whitebeard's wishes). Although from what other people saw of him, he may have seemed to have an overgrown ego, deep down he knew that he was nothing but a single man, and was fully aware of his own mortality. He knew that the youth are the keys to the future, and that their lives are far more important than his own.
He also seemed to enjoy talking about the past. The first things he talked about when Shanks visited were old memories from the past twenty-two years, and when he saw Buggy during the war, he recalled some memories from the past. People that were children at that time were still children in his eyes, even men as powerful as his fellow Yonko Shanks and Admiral Aokiji.
One way to appease him mainly involved bringing and sharing with him a drink (preferably of high quality and very expensive) while striking up a conversation, as seen with his encounters with Shanks, Roger and Shiki. Still, this did not guarantee complete cooperation from the Pirate, judging from the nature of these said conversations.
Among his philosophies in life was that it is fine when a man decides what to make of his life, as long as he does not live to regret it. He had also been shown to be forgiving even after being stabbed in the abdomen by his ally Squard when he realized that Akainu had deceived Squard.
A distinguishing feature of Whitebeard's nature was his high moral standards. Whitebeard never forgave the death of a crewmate. His stance, that a man cannot live without some form of moral code. The ultimate proof of his unwavering sense of right and wrong came when he declared war with the World Government solely to save Ace's life. Another example is taking on Blackbeard and his crew despite being close to death to avenge Thatch. However, he was willing to go against his moral code under certain circumstances, such as when he instructed Ace to let Blackbeard go because he had an uneasy feeling about him.
Like Gol D. Roger, Whitebeard also believed that a child should not be responsible for their parents' sins, and he told Squard that Ace should not be held responsible for Roger killing his (Squard's) original crew.
Like other characters in One Piece, he has a distinct laughter which is "Gu ra ra ra ra". Like Perona, his laugh is similar to the name of his Devil Fruit, the Gura Gura no Mi. However in the anime (before the Marineford Arc) and Gigant Battle, his laugh was changed to a regular "Ha ha ha ha ha". In the American Shonen Jump, his laugh is changed to "Gu ha ha ha ha".