A HTML Email Boilerplate is designed to create a solid foundation for any email campaign by fixing various email client quirks from the beginning (saving headaches later!), as well as providing a good starting point for building your own email campaigns/templates.
There are various email boilerplate templates around, however Central College Nottingham has adapted its own boilerplate template based on a variety of sources as well our own additions based on our own research and development. We regularly review changes in email client behaviour and aim to keep our boilerplate constantly up to date with the latest developments and changes in the email world.
We refer to our email boilerplate as a redux of the original HTML Email Boilerplate
As well as creating a solid foundation for any email campaign, our boilerplate also focuses on the following areas:
- Forcing the document mode (edge) for Internet Explorer based clients
- CSS3 support in the native mail client on Windows Phone 8 and above (POP3/IMAP)
- Scaling images correctly in Outlook 2010 and 2013 when using DPI scaling factors greater than 96 DPI (100%)
- Improved Windows Phone compatibility
- Improved Office 365 (OWA) compatibility (Microsoft have since improved the rendering standards of OWA in the October 2014 update)
- Android 4.4 centring fix
As well as fixing other email client quirks that have been discovered.
Our boilerplate is split into two versions, stable and experimental. There are two variants of the stable boilerplate and one variant of the experimental boilerplate.
- Stable with guidelines - Commented version for guideline purposes
- Stable without guidelines - Version to use in live email campaigns
- Experimental without guidelines - Bleeding edge version to test new developments
The two variants of the stable boilerplate are essentially the same, the main difference is one features lots of comments for guideline purposes (with guidelines), while the other is simply the same document but without any HTML/CSS comments (without guidelines), which is the version you should use in your own email campaigns.
Never use the guidelines version in a live email campaign, as HTML/CSS comments play havoc with spam filters and even cause emails to appear blank in a few clients!
The experimental version of the boilerplate is essentially a bleeding edge test ground. As things change in the email client world, new code needs to be tested. This version provides a perfect base for this without disrupting the stability and original purpose of the stable boilerplate.
New code that hasn't been tested thoroughly will appear on the experimental version first. If the newly added code passes our own QA tests it will eventually make its way to the stable version. Sometimes if experimental code doesn't pass such tests, it will just be removed entirely without going near the stable version.
It is strongly recommended that you NEVER use the experimental version of the boilerplate in a live email campaign. The experimental version may not have been tested thoroughly and hence its cross email client compatibility is not guaranteed. Always use the stable version!
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) 2014 - 2015 Central College Nottingham
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
This boilerplate is originally based on two very popular boilerplates by:
- Sean Powell - http://htmlemailboilerplate.com
- Email on Acid - http://www.emailonacid.com/blog/details/C13/html_boilerplate
Further additions and adaptations have been made Central College Nottingham either from our own research or cited from sources. Where sources have been cited in the guidelines version of the stable boilerplate, credit is given to the original author of the referenced information.