Email Rendering Issues: Why They Happen & How To Correct Them

We need to talk about email rendering issues today.  

If you’re like most marketers we know, you must have undergone that moment of dread—when your beautifully designed email archetypes look like perfection in one email client and then develop into something that resembles the work of a stumbling amateur. 

Inconsistent email rendering is not just frustrating; it is the second biggest challenge marketers face in email design and development. Second to, issues with responsive email development. 

Honestly? We aren’t even surprised knowing that we’re not living in a sleek world where we only need to worry about a couple of email clients. There are many email clients out there. Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo Mail!, View, and about a million others (Fine, a slight exaggeration here, but you get the point.).

They all follow no universal standards. Each email client plays by its own rulebook, rendering your emails in modalities that can sometimes make you cringe.

But familiarizing yourself with top email rendering issues allows you to learn the limits of each email client and design your next email with these limitations in mind. 

In this report, we explain why different email clients make the same email differently and share practical workarounds to help you ensure your emails look great universally. 

What Does Email Rendering Mean?

While coding emails that respond to different screen sizes is handled beautifully by responsive email template builder by Email Mavlers, email rendering is a whole new ball game. 

Let’s first understand the basics of email rendering. 

Email rendering is the way different email clients display your email designs to your email recipient. 

When Gmail, View, Apple Mail, and other email clients receive your email, they interpret your and CSS through their distinctive lens. This leads to inconsistencies in everything from layouts, fonts, images, and responsiveness. 

The plot thickens with modern features like dark mode, image blocking, interactive elements, and other unsupported styles. 

The saving grace is that when you understand what email client most of your subscribers use, you can improve your email archetypes so. When your emails make perfect in your subscribers’ preferred email clients, you’ll likely see better open rates, more clicks, and better conversions.

Why Do Email Rendering Issues Occur In The First Place?

First, blame the rendering engines. Email clients like Gmail, View, and Apple Mail each use different rendering engines to interpret your and CSS. Apple Mail uses WebKit. Gmail has its own engine. And View’s desktop version relies on Microsoft Word. It’s like giving the same drawing instructions to different artists—you’ll get wildly different results.

Second, ESPs can alter your code. They might strip out code bits they deem unsafe or add tracking pixels, inadvertently messing with your design.

Finally, web-based and app-based clients behave differently. Different operating systems, screen sizes, and individual user preferences for dark mode or image blocking—-all these factors can drastically change how your email renders in your subscriber’s inbox. 

Most Common Email Rendering Issues

1. Inconsistent Font Display

Don’t be surprised if your sleek custom font renders as plain old Times New Roman in some email clients. Many email clients support only a limited range of web-safe fonts. Arial, Verdana, and Times New Roman are some of them. 

Meaning that when an email uses a custom font that the client doesn’t support, it substitutes a default font, which disrupts the email design. Outlook is particularly notorious for this, defaulting to Times New Roman whether you like it or not.

1. Layout Problems

Email rendering issues might cause your email archetypes not to become acquainted with different screen sizes on different devices. Misaligned columns, excessive spacing, or distorted designs are the most common issues you will encounter due to unresponsive layouts. 

1. Broken Images

Some email clients block images by default for security justifications. Sometimes, unsupported file formats will make emails with missing or broken images. 

1. Unsupported Media 

Different email clients have varying support for media like GIFs or videos. Some only display the first frame of a GIF. For videos, users have to click a link to view them in a browser. To avoid such a broken experience, always give a fallback, such as a static image with a play button for videos.

1. Email Size Restrictions

Some email clients clip larger emails. Gmail has a particularly interesting quirk: it clips emails larger than 102 KB and hides the rest behind a “view entire message” link. Removing unnecessary code and compressing images helps prevent this issue, though. 

1. Button Rendering Issues

Inconsistent rendering across different email clients infects CTA buttons too. Due to which, buttons may appear distorted or stop to make altogether. 

1. Background Color Problems

In the case of certain email clients, background colors and images stop to load. It leaves blank white spaces and messes with the design consistency. 

View 2007–2013, to point out, doesn’t support background images at all. To prevent this, always set a fallback background color so the email still looks polished, even if the background image doesn’t load.

1. Padding Issues

Different email clients handle padding and margins in their distinctive modalities. This can lead to extra or missing space that can throw off design balance. View, to point out, renders padding and margins properly only when employing a table-based layout. 

How To Fix These Email Rendering Issues?

• Always include descriptive alt-text for images. This ensures your message comes through even when certain email clients block images. 
• Make fonts like Arial, Tahoma, and Courier your best friend, as these are universally recognized across email clients. 
• Completely avoid employing JavaScript or Flash in emails. They often cause spam filters, aren’t supported by email clients, and can even pose security risks.
• Design responsive email archetypes with a single-column layout. 
• Keep your email width at 600px. Because this is the standard size that plays well across most email clients.
• Design buttons and backgrounds that don’t rely only on images. Use text for CTAs. This guarantees subscribers understand the next step, even with images turned off. 
• If employing background images, don’t add CTAs to them. Use fallback background colors. 
• Design for dark mode. Use clear images and resist the urge to include hardcoded background colors. So that your email remains readable across different display modes.

Wiring Up

Email rendering issues may have been a marketer’s worst nightmare. But they are also an opportunity. By improving your emails for different email clients, you’re not just improving the design—you’re taking control of how subscribers see your brand’s emails.

Yes, it requires jumping through a few extra hoops, but the result is worth it. You’ll create more consistent, professional-looking emails that make beautifully across platforms. This can only bring good news for your email engagement, open rates, and sender reputation.