Common Issues with Outlook Email Templates

Outlook is inherently limited when it comes to HTML functionality. Because Outlook is an email client and not a sending platform, it often disregards or alters HTML and design elements. This can lead to inconsistent results that are beyond your control.

In other words, a few design elements may appear broken or differently styled in Outlook. Our goal is to help you identify and avoid these issues so your emails can still look polished and professional.

In this guide, we’ve consolidated common Outlook rendering issues and provided practical solutions. Our goal is to help you avoid these pitfalls and create professional emails that render reliably.

Best Practices for Designing Emails for Outlook

Before jumping into the nitty-gritty of technical issues, let’s start with a few general recommendations. These tips will help you design emails that are more likely to display consistently in Outlook, saving you time and frustration down the line.

• Use a simple, single-column layout: Outlook handles simple layouts better than complex multi-column designs.
• Avoid rounded buttons: These will appear square-shaped in Outlook.
• Do not use background images on individual containers: Outlook doesn’t support them. Instead, use a VML-based solution, which Postcards provides.
• Avoid styled menu tabs: Outlook will strip their design.

Common Outlook Issues and Fixes

Now that you have a few best practices in mind, let’s dive into the specific rendering issues you might face when designing emails for Outlook; and what you can do to fix them.

Random White Lines Between Sections

Outlook sometimes inserts white lines due to converting pixels into points.

Solution:

• Adjust paddings and dimensions.
• Use pixel values divisible by 4 for font-size, line-height, padding, and margins.

Text Formatting Problems

When copying and pasting content, styles and font sizes may become inconsistent.

Solution:

• Clean your code by removing unnecessary <span> tags.
• Standardize font styles and sizes manually in the Postcards email builder. Use standard system fonts like Arial, Verdana, or Georgia.

Font Rendering Problems

Text can appear differently in Outlook compared to other clients, which can affect branding and readability.

Reason: Outlook has poor support for custom web fonts such as Google Fonts. In many cases, it will revert to Times New Roman or another system default.

Solution:

• Use standard system fonts like Arial, Verdana, or Georgia.
• Test your email in Outlook to ensure text still looks clean and legible with fallback fonts. Outlook does not support custom fonts like Google Fonts.
• Define fallback fonts in the font-family stack. Postcards gives you the option to choose the default fallback font.

Background Images Not Displaying

Outlook does not support CSS background images.

Solution:

• Use VML (Vector Markup Language) within conditional comments to display background images.
• Alternatively, you can convert the design blocks into a flat image; Postcards offers this option as well.

Image Issues

Images are a frequent source of rendering trouble in Outlook. From missing visuals to distorted sizing, here are the main issues and how to prevent them.

• Blocked images: Outlook blocks images by default.
• Incorrect sizing: Images may stretch or appear at their original size.
• Missing padding: Outlook ignores CSS margin/padding on images.
• Image distortion: If width and height attributes are not set, Outlook may display images stretched or compressed.
• Images not appearing at all: In some cases, when height isn’t defined, Outlook fails to display images even if width is specified.
• Stretched email templates: If an image is larger than its container, it may stretch the entire layout.

Solutions:

• Always define both width and height attributes directly on the <img> tag. Define these attributes directly in the Postcards email builder.
• Use hspace and vspace attributes for consistent spacing.
• Resize images before uploading to match the container size.

Responsive Design Limitations

Sometimes your email might appear non-responsive, especially when viewed in Gmail after being sent via services like Mailchimp.

Issue: When saving a template in Mailchimp, the platform may reformat the code, causing responsiveness issues.

Solution:

• Contact Mailchimp support to better understand how to preserve your original structure.
• Use external testing tools like Litmus or Email on Acid to verify rendering.

General Outlook Limitations: Outlook does not support media queries or modern responsive techniques.

Solution:

• Use hybrid design methods like inline-block and fixed-width tables.
• Avoid relying on max-width and use fixed HTML widths instead. Outlook does not support media queries or modern responsive techniques.

Button Styling Issues

• Rounded corners ignored: Use image-based or VML buttons.
• Padding issues: Use mso-padding-alt for spacing.
• Misalignment: Use display:block, and reset line-height and font-size as needed.

GIF Animation Limitations

Animated GIFs do not play in older Outlook versions.

Solution:

• Ensure the first frame of the GIF delivers the key message.
• Use a static image fallback if needed.

Border and Layout Glitches

Some Outlook versions, like 2019, may hide borders or misalign sections.

Solution:

• Wrap content in additional containers to restore visual structure.

Outlook App Rendering Issues

Emails may look different when sent via the Outlook desktop or mobile app versus the Outlook Web App.

Reason: The Outlook App tends to reformat or misinterpret certain HTML and CSS elements.

Solution:

• When possible, send emails using the Outlook Web App where less code manipulation occurs.
• Consider creating a tutorial or support reference to guide users on this difference.

Unexpected Text Color Changes in Outlook for iOS

Some parts of your text may change color automatically, usually for dates, phone numbers, emails, or addresses.

Reason: Outlook for iOS auto-detects these data types and turns them into clickable links, applying default link styling (blue/purple).

Solution:

• Manually apply a custom color to the part of the text that includes linkable data. You can apply these colors in the Postcards email builder.
• Example: for “July 15 – 17, 2024”, select and style the segment “ly 15 – 17, 20” separately. This prevents Outlook from linking the entire phrase and changing its color. Some Outlook versions, like 2019, may hide borders or misalign sections.
• Wrap content in additional containers to restore visual structure.

Outlook and Dark Mode Issues

1. Text Colors Inverted Automatically

In Outlook’s dark mode (especially Outlook 365 and Outlook.com), light backgrounds and dark text are inverted: but not always in a predictable way.

Symptoms:

• Black text becomes white (or vice versa), but background colors don’t change.
• Logos or icons designed for light backgrounds become invisible.

Solution:

• Use transparent PNGs for logos/icons with sufficient contrast.
• Avoid setting text colors like black #000000; instead, use dark gray (#1a1a1a) which helps reduce unwanted inversion.

2. Background Colors Ignored or Misrendered
Some Outlook versions in dark mode ignore or override light background colors.
Solution:

• Use VML to set background colors for containers in Outlook desktop.
• Always include a fallback solid color behind background images.

3. Logo or Image Visibility Issues
If your logo is dark (e.g. black) and the background turns dark in Outlook, it becomes unreadable.

Solution:

• Use transparent PNG logos with white or light-colored text.
• Add a light-colored background behind logos inside a <td> or <div>.

4. Dark Mode Not Detected in Some Outlook Clients
Outlook doesn’t offer media query support like prefers-color-scheme in Windows desktop versions.

Solution:

• Use conditional comments to create a “safe” fallback for Outlook, e.g., fixed background color and image containers.
• For Outlook web and mobile, rely on balance: avoid very light or very dark backgrounds with very light or very dark text.

Best Practices for Using Postcards in Outlook Dark Mode

• Avoid black text on white backgrounds.
• Use dark gray text on light gray backgrounds for better compatibility across modes.
• When exporting with Postcards, double-check how your design appears in both light and dark mode using tools like Email on Acid or Litmus.
• Use the Postcards image background options to add solid color behind transparent PNGs.

Exporting Emails as Images

Sometimes the easiest solution is to bypass HTML quirks altogether. If you’re looking for a quick and foolproof way to maintain your email’s design integrity in Outlook, consider exporting it as an image. Postcards offers the option to convert your entire design into images.

This avoids HTML formatting issues in Outlook. Simply insert the image version of your email to ensure consistent rendering.

Using Postcards with Outlook

We know Outlook can be tricky, so we’ve built tools in Postcards specifically to make your life easier. If you plan to send emails through Outlook, these export options and resources will come in handy. Postcards provides several export options tailored for Outlook. For help with specific setups, check out these guides:

• How to Send a Postcards Email Template with Outlook Live
• How to Send a Postcards Email Template with Outlook 365
• How to Embed a Custom HTML Email in Outlook

We recommend using our Insert HTML by Designmodo plugin for the web version of Outlook. This method leads to fewer design inconsistencies than using the desktop app.

Note: When using plugins to insert HTML or when importing templates as OFT or EMLTPL files, mobile responsiveness settings are often lost. This means your email may not display correctly on mobile devices when sent through these methods. It’s important to test these formats carefully or consider alternative sending methods if mobile compatibility is critical.

Final Takeaway

While Outlook may not be the best platform for sending beautifully designed emails, it’s still possible to achieve good results. We strongly recommend using a professional email-sending platform whenever possible.

For more details, read our post on Why You Should Not Use Outlook or Gmail for Email Marketing.

Explore our professionally designed email templates and get inspired to create more impactful messages for your audience.