As previously posted 6 months ago, I had been working on a solid design for HTML emails that would work in every client. The design of that email worked pretty well. However, since then, I kept getting asked to do the impossible. Rounded corners, curved strokes and shadows. As mentioned, Outlook 2007 doesn’t support positioning and doesn’t support background-images. This combination makes it really really hard to create a decent design.
I just upgraded one email for Marketo. I got the rounded corners to work in all clients, but it was really annoying. Doing the curved corner stroke (not shown) was so difficult, I just skipped it. I used a great tool from ReturnPath called Campaign Preview. Check out this output of all the different email clients. That is awesome! I don’t have to send all those email’s by hand anymore.
One question I have is about Lotus Notes. They are on version 8.0.1, but the return path does 6.5.4. Who uses Lotus Notes anyway? I can’t believe they are still working on it. And the 6.5.4 rendering engine is the worst I have ever seen. Why don’t they just use Firefox to render? Why do all of these different email clients feel they have to reinvent the wheel?
Anyway, feel free to look at the source for the template. It’s pretty readable and works well.
Whatya think?