Issue with Gmail failing to render CSS in HTML email (svnspam)

After successfully setting up and configuring svnspam, I noticed that the emails sent to my Gmail account are missing the colored diffs. When examining the original email using Gmail's view original feature, I found the CSS code as follows: 

<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
  body {background-color:#ffffff;}
  .file {border:1px solid #eeeeee;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;}
  .pathname {font-family:monospace; float:right;}
  .fileheader {margin-bottom:.5em;}
  .diff {margin:0;}
  .tasklist {padding:4px;border:1px dashed #000000;margin-top:1em;}
  .tasklist ul {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}
  tr.alt {background-color:#eeeeee}
  #added {background-color:#ddffdd;}
  #addedchars {background-color:#99ff99;font-weight:bolder;}
  tr.alt #added {background-color:#ccf7cc;}
  #removed {background-color:#ffdddd;}
  #removedchars {background-color:#ff9999;font-weight:bolder;}
  tr.alt #removed {background-color:#f7cccc;}
  #info {color:#888888;}
  #context {background-color:#eeeeee;}
  td {padding-left:.3em;padding-right:.3em;}
  tr.head {border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;}
  tr.head td {padding:0;padding-top:.2em;}
  .task {background-color:#ffff00;}
  .comment {padding:4px;border:1px dashed #000000;background-color:#ffffdd}
  .error {color:red;}
  hr {border-width:0px;height:2px;background:black;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" rules="cols">

Interestingly, when I copy the entire HTML content from the original source and save it as an HTML file locally, the colored diffs display perfectly. This makes me wonder what could be causing the issue with the emails.

htmlcssemailgmail

Answer №1

My journey into HTML mail formatting began just a few days ago, so I'm far from being an expert in this field. It's challenging to cater to all the different mail clients out there. One key tip I've come across is using inline styles instead of <style> blocks since they may not work in all email clients. Additionally, sticking to table layouts rather than regular CSS for design is crucial, despite resulting in repetitive and messy code. For example:

  <div style="width:590px; margin-top:10px;margin-right:auto;margin-bottom:5px;margin-left:auto; padding: 20px 20px 20px 20px; background-color:#89b556;background-image: url(http://groupon.s3.amazonaws.com/email-images/shared/bg-email-starburst.jpg);background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: center top; border-width:5px; border-style: solid; border-color:#deedcc;-moz-border-radius:10px;-webkit-border-radius:10px; ">
    <table width="100%" style="background-color:#fff; -moz-border-radius-topright:8px; -moz-border-radius-topleft:8px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius:8px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius:8px; *margin-top: -5px" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

I came across information suggesting that some clients might accept the <style> block in the <body> but not in the <head>, so experimenting with that could be beneficial. Perhaps Gmail would support this approach.

If you're looking for inspiration, check out these free email templates. Another tactic I use is studying well-designed emails sent to me and examining their source code. For instance, I took cues from an email received from Groupon.com, although it didn't render correctly in certain clients like Evolution. Nevertheless, it served as a useful starting point.

Here's a relevant Stack Overflow question with insightful answers.

To ensure thoroughness (and for my own future reference), I'm sharing the valuable link* shared by @Cherian earlier. This resource was new to me but contains a wealth of valuable information! Kudos on finding it...

**The original link referenced has expired. You can access it here: http://web.archive.org/web/20090116092215/http://xavierfrenette.com/articles/css-support-in-webmail/*

Answer №2

Tauren's response is spot on.

Recently, I discovered that the updated gmail layout (rolled out in 2011) removes the background-color property from inline styles. To counter this issue, I successfully utilized the bgcolor attribute within a tr element.

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