Not sure what a Fluid or Hybrid responsive email is? This jolly little slideshow will both enlighten and entertain... probably.
1 of 14
Download to read offline
More Related Content
Why Responsive Email Content is like Water
1. Why Responsive Email Content is like Water
You put water into a
cup, it becomes the
cup
you put water into a
teapot, it becomes the
teapot.
you put water into a
bottle, it becomes the
bottle
To quote 1958 Cha Cha
Champion Bruce Lee
www.newzapp.com
2. Why Build Responsively?
The days of designing just for desktop
clients are past
Similarly we cannot just design for
mobile devices
The typical email audience opens
them on a mixture of the two
Responsive email building allows
emails to change to a layout and size
that suits the email reader
3. Main types of Responsive Email Structure
Fluid Adaptive Hybrid
4. Pros Cons
Fluid
Simplest to build and proof
No CSS needed in <head>
Works cross platform
No restriction on layout width
Not very controllable
Not the best for wider screens
Adaptive
CSS and @media queries in <head> mean
greater control over layout
Wider and narrower screens catered for
More complicated to build and proof
Not suitable for Gmail App on Mobile (which
ignores CSS and @media queries)
Hybrid
Doesnt rely on CSS or @media queries
Can still create layouts to suit wider and
narrower screens
...including Gmail App on mobile
A bit more complicated to build and proof
Depends on MSO code for Outlook
Left and right aligned tables can be flaky in
some desktop readers
Which Method Should We Use?
5. Fluid
One of the earliest forms of
Responsive techniques
All table widths are set as
percentages
This works best for very simple
layouts
No CSS is required in <head>
<table> and image elements
expand to fit the screens width
6. Fluid
Expansion works great for
narrower screens
Images set to scale with the email
can become fuzzy and pixelated
but on wider screens this can
lead to layout problems
Elements can be stretched too
wide or move too far apart
7. Adaptive
The next development of
Responsive building
Fixed-width <table> elements with
multiple columns ensures a stable
layout for wider screens
Works well on desktop readers like
Outlook , Gmail and Mac Mail
This caters for wider and narrower
screens by targeting them
separately
8. Adaptive
Fixed-width <table> elements given
Fluid-style percentage-widths on
narrower screens
CSS and Media Queries in <head> of
email will target narrower screens
<table> column cells become CSS
block elements which allows them
to stack over each other
Any CSS in the <head> of an email is
ignored by most desktop clients
9. Adaptive
Unfortunately, the Gmail App on
mobile devices ignores CSS and
Media Queries in <head>
A broken version of the desktop
layout is shown instead
10. Hybrid
Uses Fluid layout for narrow
screens, not CSS or Media Queries
in the <head>
Developed to address the issues in
Gmail App on mobile
Floating single-cell <table>s with
left and right alignment allow
stacking on narrower screens
11. Hybrid
On wider screens, the left and right
aligned <table>s unstack and sit in
a single row
Inline CSS style max-width on
<table> stops expansion at a set
point
Works well for most mobile and
desktop devices
12. Hybrid
except the Outlook email reader,
which ignores the max-width
inline style
MSO-specific code is needed to
create ghost multi-column <table>s
with fixed widths to prevent over-
expansion
These ghost <table>s are only
active in the Outlook email client
all other email readers ignore them