## Need to know
-The sad truth about creating or coding HTML emails is that tables are the only thing that is universally supported when it comes to email design. If you came from the world of building websites, this may seem like a stepping into Doc Brown's Delorean, charging up the Flux-capitor, and going back to the 1996. Suddenly your CSS is written with inline style tags, useful CSS properties don't work and you're burried in a sea of table tags.
+The sad truth about creating or coding HTML emails is that tables are the only things that are universally supported when it comes to email design. If you came from the world of building websites, this may seem like a stepping into Doc Brown's Delorean, charging up the Flux-capitor, and going back to the 1996. Suddenly your CSS is written with inline style tags, useful CSS properties don't work and you're burried in a sea of table tags.
<div class="callout secondary tip">General rule of thumb: your email is not going to look identical in every client. And that’s OK.</div>
Nope. JavaScript is not a reality in most popular emails. It will be blocked for security reasons.
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## Images
#### Blocked Images
Animated GIFs have *surprisingly* good support. As usual, there are caveats. Outlook only shows the first frame of the animation. Make sure your call to action is visible in the first frame.
-Video's in emails are not supported.
+Video's in emails are not supported except in Apple Mail and Outlook 2011. [See how Litmus explores background video in HTML Emails](https://litmus.com/blog/how-to-code-html5-video-background-in-email)
#### Quick Tips on Images
Images get blocked. So if you have an important CTA image that looks like a button, it will likely get missed. And that defeats the purpose of your email.
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## Email File Size
Sending an email with a file size between 15KB-100KB is ideal. Some email clients will send the email to spam if the file size is greater.
Problems
-- this could cause the email open to not be registered
-- your email's call to action could be missed
+- This could cause the email open to not be registered
+- Your email's call to action could be missed
Causes
While these guidelines give a general measurement for touch targets, they’re not consistent with each other, nor are they consistent with the actual size of the human finger. In fact, their suggested sizes are much smaller than the average finger, which can lead to touch target problems for users on mobile devices.
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## Testing
Testing costs money. Not testing costs you customers.
These services make testing on lots of email clients and devices much faster. Try to hit the main categories: a Windows machine, a Mac, an iPhone, an Android, a tablet. Still, nothing beats testing on a real device.
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## Sending you Emails
ESP's are made for sending thousands and thousands of emails, they can help you get emails out without being deemed a spammer.
OBEY THE LAW. The CAN-SPAM act became law on Jan. 1, 2004. It says there many things you must do as a commercial email-er. Highlights are basically don't be deceptive, and that you MUST include a physical mailing address as well as a working unsubscribe link.
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## Design Tips
Just like in web design, it doesn't hurt to think above the fold. Meaning what users will see before they have to scroll.