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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-01T09:53:04+00:00

When I include the following HTML in an email, the image is downloaded automatically

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When I include the following HTML in an email, the image is downloaded automatically by Outlook:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><html><head></head><body><div><p><br /></p></div><div style="border-style:solid;border-width:2px;border-color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,232,0);width:302px;height:185px"><img style="position:relative;z-index:100;left:126px; top:39px;" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/signoffmainbucket/8CA8EC1A-C1C5-4390-9FC4-649648AA26C8.jpg" alt="image"/><p style="opacity:1.00;color:rgb(0,0,0);position:relative;margin: -123px 0px 0px 18px;font-family: Helvetica, Helvetica;font-size:14px"><b>John</b></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="opacity:1.00;color:rgb(0,0,0);position:relative;margin: 0px 0px 0px 18px;font-family: Helvetica, Helvetica;font-size:14px"><b>XYZ Company</b></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div></body></html>

However, the same image in the following HTML is not automatically downloaded by Outlook:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>Render this</title>
    <style type="text/css">
        div, p {
            margin:0;
            padding:0;
            font-family: Helvetica;
            font-size:14px;
            color:#000;
            font-weight:bold;
        }
        div.box {
            padding:15px;
            width:272px;
            height:155px;
            border:2px solid #000;
            background-color:rgb(255,232,0);
        }
        div.box div.inner {
            height:100%;
            background:url("https://s3.amazonaws.com/signoffmainbucket/8CA8EC1A-C1C5-4390-9FC4-649648AA26C8.jpg") bottom right no-repeat;
        }
        p.name {
            margin-bottom:65px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <div class="box">
        <div class="inner">
            <p class="name">John</p>
            <p>XYZ Company</p>
        </div>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Why would the image be downloaded in the first example but not the second please?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    That’s because creating HTML emails suck. Outlook, since 2007 I believe, switched from using Internet Explorer’s renderer to using a Word based HTML renderer. This makes CSS support extremely limited. Your best hope at making an HTML email without losing your mind is to use tables to structure your content and use inline styles right on the elements. Yes, to reach the widest possible audience with HTML emails you have to code like it’s 1997.

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