Hybrid Fluid Layouts for Ultimate Responsiveness

Rigid, fixed-width templates don’t cut it when over 70% of opens happen on mobile. Hybrid fluid layouts blend fixed pixel widths for desktop with percentage-based containers for mobile.

Use a 600px max-width wrapper, then nest inner tables set to 100% width. This ensures:

• Clean desktop display without side scrolling.
• Seamless mobile adaptation that fills any screen size.
• Consistent brand presentation across devices.

VML & Conditional CSS for Outlook Perfection

Outlook’s rendering engine is legendary for ignoring modern CSS. Combat this with Vector Markup Language (VML) and conditional comments:

<!--[if mso]>
<v:rect xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" fill="true" stroke="false"
  style="width:600px;height:200px;">
  <v:fill type="frame" src="hero.jpg" color="#000000" />
  <v:textbox inset="0,0,0,0">
<![endif]-->

<div style="background-image:url('hero.jpg');width:600px;height:200px;">
  <!-- Hero content for modern clients -->
</div>

<!--[if mso]>
  </v:textbox>
</v:rect>
<![endif]-->

The VML block ensures Outlook shows the same hero as modern clients. Always test Outlook desktop after adding VML.

Robust Inline Styles & Fallbacks

Many clients strip external or <style> CSS — inline critical styles and provide safe fallbacks (solid colours, system fonts).

<td style="background-color:#ff6f61;color:#ffffff;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;padding:20px;">
  <h1 style="margin:0;font-size:24px;line-height:28px;">Your Heading</h1>
</td>

This snippet displays your hero image in Outlook just like modern clients.

Dark Mode Ready with CSS Media Queries

Dark mode is no longer optional. Add this media query to switch colors automatically:

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) { .button { background-color:#ffffff !important; color:#000000 !important; } 
.text { color:#dddddd !important; } } 

Test thoroughly: some clients ignore prefers-color-scheme, so always combine with solid fallbacks.

Fluid Images & Responsive Media

Stop broken or oversized images by using:

img src="product.jpg" alt="Product" style="display:block;max-width:100%;height:auto;border:0;" />

This ensures images shrink on small screens without distortion.

Testing Is Non-Negotiable

Leverage tools like Litmus and Email on Acid. Test across:

• 40+ email clients (desktop, web, mobile).
• Both light and dark modes.
• Accessibility: alt text, semantic HTML, logical tab order.

Why Templyft?

Templyft’s developers combine these advanced techniques to deliver bulletproof, responsive, and dark mode-ready email templates.

• We’ve hand-crafted over 3,000 templates, rigorously tested across every major client.
• Every template is optimized for deliverability, accessibility, and flawless rendering.