Email clients have evolved greatly over the past few years to allow users to read and view emails in a visually and useful way. But these improvements introduced some challenges to email marketers’ campaigns. Most notably, Gmail automatically applies margins to images which can break the flow and style of an email. In this post, we will look at the issue and how email marketers can handle it so that their campaigns will show up in the right position in Gmail.
Understanding the Issue
Before we get to the methods for eliminating image margins, let’s see why Gmail makes these margins in the first place. The primary one is to keep things tidy and orderly in the users’ inboxes. Margins and padding ensure that images do not overlap or run over the text, rendering them more readable and accessible across different email clients and devices.
But it’s a design choice that frustrates people who write well-thought emails. If your email contains a header image, logo or graphic that’s critical to the layout, those off-balance margins throw the entire layout off balance. So it’s imperative that we use techniques to determine the appearance of images once they’re being sent.
Reasons Behind the Issue
1. CSS Parsing in Gmail
Gmail has a well-developed security protocol to guard users from malicious messages. This protection extends to the handling of CSS. Gmail removes some of the most commonly used CSS properties, like display and float. This not only cleans the system from malicious scripts, but it also unintentionally impacts your email design, particularly when it comes to the presentation of images. Once these properties are unchecked, photos can be moved around, margins or gaps created which are not present in the design.
2. Limitations with Responsive Design
A third complication comes from the responsive design limitations that Gmail dictates. CSS media queries for responsive design don’t really support Gmail. This non-support causes a variety of display issues across different devices. For example, the image that might look great on a desktop could look radically different on a mobile device, with images not aligned or blank spaces. These kinds of device misalignments impact the success of an e-mail marketing campaign, and drive designers and users insane trying to get a slick, eye-catching outcome.
3. Gmail App vs. Webmail Inconsistencies
There are still more bugs with email rendering since Gmail mobile and webmail support multiple levels of HTML/CSS. A fully visually stunning email sent from a desktop webmail application might instantly lose its luster upon accessing the Gmail application on a smartphone. This variance requires further consideration for more complex design features that might not scale properly across platforms, which can complicate a design and necessitate a lot of testing.
Best Practices to Manage Image Margins in Gmail
While there is no single flick of a switch to remove image margins entirely, several methods can help you achieve a cleaner, more polished image appearance in your Gmail correspondence. Here are some best practices to follow:
How to Control Image Margins on Gmail.
Although there isn’t one toggle that would dispense with image margins, there are several techniques you can use to get rid of the look of image spaces in your Gmail messages. Here are some best practices to follow:
1. Use Inline CSS Styling
Inline CSS styling is one of the ways to style images in emails to keep them in control. You can override Gmail’s default CSS settings by styling your image tag directly. Here’s how to do this:
Here’s what happens with every CSS change:
margin: 0; This overrides Gmail’s default margins.
padding: 0; It prevents any internal space within the image element.
display: block; This keeps the image from becoming an inline component which takes up vertical space.
Test out the size, shape, and position of the images until you can achieve an appearance that works with your design.
2. Transparent – Use PNG or GIF formats.
Some image types, like JPEG, are prone to losing quality when being used in emails. Additionally, JPEG images lack transparency, so a clumsy background effect might occur. You can use PNG or GIF files that will have a transparent background and more control over alignment and layering. If the pictures do not stand out against the email background, there are fewer margins required.
3. Host Images Externally
If adding images directly is a problem, use external images. Image hosting providers such as Imgur, Dropbox, or your domain will store your images so you can just point to them in your email. In this way, you can manage how the images appear and change settings on the hosting end.
4. Build a Image Alignment Table.
An easy HTML table can align images with no unwanted margins. Here’s how to do it:
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By building a table with collapsed margins and no padding around cells, you can avoid the margins while still giving it the structure you’re after.
5. Set Image Width
The 100% width of the image may allow it to scale better across different screens and email clients without leaving gaps. For example:
Make sure the container or parent is responsive so that the image can scale to different size on different screens.
6. Test Your Emails
It’s very important to check your emails before sending them. Utilize tools such as Litmus or Email on Acid to preview your email on multiple devices and clients. This is essential, because it allows you to visualise the interaction between images and paragraphs, picking up any unwanted margins or spacing before they are delivered to your readers.
7. Use Plain Text Emails
If your images and patterns are constantly nagging you, then perhaps you’ll consider switching to plain text emails. As you see, plain text emails eliminate most of the formatting complications of HTML email, such as margins, so your message will seem clean and direct. This gives you a limited design flexibility, but it can be a good substitute for critical messaging.
Conclusion:
It is important to be aware of the concerns and challenges of email clients such as Gmail in order to get a better email marketing campaign. By fixing these issues and by creating good solutions, email marketers can ensure that emails are displayed properly and they are able to interact effectively with their readers.
