Absolute positioning in gmail emails
CssGmailCss PositionCss Problem Overview
I have a client who wants to send gift certificates to people who sign up on their site. They want it all designed out, so I can't just send a text email. I'm trying to position text over the image so that it can still be dynamic.
I'm trying to do this with absolute positioning. Some email systems love it. Some hate it. Gmail happens to hate it.
We're using MailChimp for the campaign. Here is the full source of the email. Following that is just the snippet that isn't working.
<html>
<head>
<!-- This is a simple example template that you can edit to create your own custom templates -->
<meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>*|MC:SUBJECT|*</title>
<style type="text/css">body{background-color:#bab145;text-align:center;}#layout{border:5px solid #999999;background:#ffffff;margin:10px auto;text-align:left;}#header{background-color:#cccccc;padding:0px;color:#333333;font-size:30px;font-family:Georgia;text-align:left;}#content{font-size:13px;color:#4d4d4d;font-family:Helvetica;line-height:1.25em;padding:10px 30px;}.primary-heading{font-size:28px;font-weight:bold;color:#8b0000;font-family:Georgia;line-height:150%;margin:25px 0 0 0;}.secondary-heading{font-size:20px;font-weight:bold;color:#000000;font-style:normal;font-family:Georgia;margin:25px 0 5px 0;}#footer{background-color:#eeeeee;border-top:0px none #ffffff;padding:20px;font-size:10px;color:#333333;line-height:100%;font-family:Verdana;}#footer a{color:#800000;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:normal;}a,a:link,a:visited{color:#800000;text-decoration:underline;font-weight:normal;}</style></head>
<body style="background-color: #bab145;text-align: center;">
<table id="layout" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600" style="border: 5px solid #999999;background: #ffffff;margin: 10px auto;text-align: left;">
<tr>
<td id="content" style="font-size: 13px;color: #4d4d4d;font-family: Helvetica;line-height: 1.25em;padding: 10px 30px;"><div style="height:243px; width: 500px; position: relative;">
<img src="http://getfreepellets.com/images/GC_flat.jpg" style="position: absolute;">
<div style="position: absolute; top: 110px; left: 130px;">
*|FNAME|* *|LNAME|*</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 140px; left: 130px;">
GetFreePellets.com</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 166px; left: 130px;">
$100</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 200px; left: 370px;">
*|COUPONCODE|*</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
<tr>
<td id="footer" style="background-color: #eeeeee;border-top: 0px none #ffffff;padding: 20px;font-size: 10px;color: #333333;line-height: 100%;font-family: Verdana;">
<p><a href="*|ARCHIVE|*" class="adminText" style="color: #800000;text-decoration: underline;font-weight: normal;">view email in browser</a> | <a href="*|UNSUB|*" style="color: #800000;text-decoration: underline;font-weight: normal;">Unsubscribe</a> *|EMAIL|* | <a href="*|UPDATE_PROFILE|*" style="color: #800000;text-decoration: underline;font-weight: normal;">Update your profile</a> | <a href="*|FORWARD|*" style="color: #800000;text-decoration: underline;font-weight: normal;">Forward to a friend</a></p>
<p>*|LIST:DESCRIPTION|*</p>
<p>*|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|*</p>
<p>Copyright (C) *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|* All rights reserved.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<span style="padding: 0px;"></span>
<center><table width="95%" style="clear:both;margin:0px !important;padding:0px !important;margin-top:20px !important;border-top:1px solid #999 !important;border-bottom:1px solid #999 !important;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr>
<td align="left" style="padding:10px !important;margin:0px !important;color:#666 !important;background:#CCC !important;width:50% !important;border-bottom 1px solid #999 !important;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Sans !important;font-size:11px !important;font-weight:normal !important;font-style:normal !important;text-decoration:none !important;vertical-align:middle !important;text-align:left !important;">
Sent to *|EMAIL|*. <a href="*|UNSUB|*" style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Sans !important;font-size:11px !important;font-weight:normal !important;font-style:normal !important;text-decoration:none !important;color:#03C !important;">Unsubscribe</a> |
<a href="*|UPDATE_PROFILE|*" style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Sans !important;font-size:11px !important;font-weight:normal !important;font-style:normal !important;text-decoration:none !important;color:#03C !important;">Update Profile</a> |
<a href="*|FORWARD|*" style="font-family:Verdana,Arial,Sans !important;font-size:11px !important;font-weight:normal !important;font-style:normal !important;text-decoration:none !important;color:#03C !important;">Forward to a Friend</a>
</td>
<td align="right" style="padding:10px !important;margin:0px !important;color:#666 !important;background:#CCC !important;width:50% !important;border-bottom 1px solid #999 !important;vertical-align:middle !important;text-align:right !important;">
*|REWARDS|*
</td>
</tr></table></center></body>
</html>
And just the snippet I'm worried about:
<tr>
<td id="content" style="font-size: 13px;color: #4d4d4d;font-family: Helvetica;line-height: 1.25em;padding: 10px 30px;"><div style="height:243px; width: 500px; position: relative;">
<img src="http://getfreepellets.com/images/GC_flat.jpg" style="position: absolute;">
<div style="position: absolute; top: 110px; left: 130px;">
*|FNAME|* *|LNAME|*</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 140px; left: 130px;">
GetFreePellets.com</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 166px; left: 130px;">
$100</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 200px; left: 370px;">
*|COUPONCODE|*</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
Note: MailChimp merge variables are those things between | and |.
Here is an image of what it looks like in Entourage. The red bar is a real name, so.. ya:
And here is it in gmail (I know the name isn't censored):
Any ideas on how to get this working in gmail?
Css Solutions
Solution 1 - Css
Unfortunately, you can't use position: absolute.
Also, because Outlook is using the Word HTML renderer, you will also run into problems using absolute positioning.
Most HTML emails are laid out with tables.
Solution 2 - Css
Please note that is not a foolproof solution. I had some problems with it on Outlook and need to disable it.
So first of all you need to set a container to position against.
<div style="width:300px;height:300px;">
</div>
Then place an element inside that, set display as inline-block and position it with margin-top and margin-left.
<div style="width:300px;height:300px;">
<div style="width:100px;height:100px;margin-top:100px;margin-left:100px;display:inline-block;">
</div>
</div>
N.B. Unfortunately negative values in the margin won't work in Gmail, Outlook.com or 365.
The element is now behaving similar to position:relative but we want position:absolute so as not to affect the flow of any neighbouring elements. To achieve this wrap the inner element in a div with max-height:0;max-width:0 this now mean that div takes up no space on the page, but the overflow can still be seen.
<div style="width:300px;height:300px;">
<div style="max-height:0;max-width:0;overflow: visible;">
<div style="width:100px;height:100px;margin-top:100px;margin-left:100px;display:inline-block;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
You can now place multiple elements in that container and position them absolute. In this example I've added outlines and semi transparent background colours to clear display the outcome.
<div style="width:300px;height:300px;outline:2px solid black;margin:0 auto;">
<div style="max-height:0;max-width:0;overflow: visible;">
<div style="width:100px;height:100px;margin-top:100px;margin-left:100px;display:inline-block;outline:2px solid red;text-align:center;line-height:100px;font-size:50px;background:rgba(255,0,0,0.2)">
1
</div>
</div>
<div style="max-height:0;max-width:0;overflow: visible;">
<div style="width:100px;height:100px;margin-top:150px;margin-left:150px;display:inline-block;outline:2px solid blue;text-align:center;line-height:100px;font-size:50px;background:rgba(0,0,255,0.2)">
2
</div>
</div>
<div style="max-height:0;max-width:0;overflow: visible;">
<div style="width:100px;height:100px;margin-top:50px;margin-left:50px;display:inline-block;outline:2px solid green;text-align:center;line-height:100px;font-size:50px;background:rgba(0,255,0,0.2)">
3
</div>
</div>
</div>
Outlook
Ok so it still doesn't work in desktop Outlook but it does work pretty much everywhere else I've test.
But please do use this wisely. Do consider Outlook, perhaps a VML fallback or simply using Outlook conditional comments.
Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20170824110806/http://blog.gorebel.com/absolute-positioning-in-email
Solution 3 - Css
I would suggest doing the whole thing as a table (div support is not 100% reliable in email clients). Use border properties to give the table the green border. Insert the image of the logo/banner in the first row of the table (merged three columns). Use the next 3 rows for the To, From and Amount (with the values in the merged second and third columns). And use the last column of the last row for the cupon code.
If you really want the double border then you can either wrap the table in a div or for maximum compatibility, wrap the table in a 1 column, 1 row table.
Yes it's ugly but email clients have extremely buggy and/or old implementations of HTML so this is not the time or place to be squirmish about ugly, non-web2.0-looking code.
See the link posted by alex for more info.
Solution 4 - Css
(I know I'm answering 4 years later... but probably it will help somebody...) If you look carefully, you don't have background images, you have possibly 10 images or more, many background colors and a complex table.
There's no image behind a text. You could divide your table and compose your background image as multiple image fragments, and match the text's background color with these images.
Really... in this template there are no "required" background images, just a complex table.