Supported CSS attributes for HTML email styling

Posted 31/03/2020

In Campaign automation, Content, Publishing, Tips & Tricks

Though you can definitely use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for HTML email styling, there are a few restriction that an e-mail template developer should be aware of. The short version is: use CSS preferably inline and mainly for simple elements like color and fonts.

Some rules of thumb:

Don’t use CSS for positioning.
Yse CSS for fonts and colors.
Be aware that WYSIWYG editors might add not supported styling elements.
Use CSS preferably inline only, though support for embedded styles in the email <head> is growing.
Always test your layout and styling using the available tools.

The CSS attributes below are supported by most popular e-mail clients:

Color
Font-size
Font-style
Font-weight
Text-align
Text-decoration
Background-color
Border
Font-family
Font-variant
Letter-spacing
Line-height
Padding
Table-layout
Text-indent
Text-transform

There are some excellent tools to convert CSS from embedded to inline, like this one. Click here for a full list of supported elements.

Sjoerd Willems