A reusable boilerplate for building HTML emails that render consistently everywhere — including Outlook’s Word rendering engine. Includes VML fallbacks for background images and bulletproof buttons, a hybrid/spongy layout that degrades gracefully, and dark-mode handling. Grew out of building 200+ production emails at Cvent.
- Demo URL: Download this HTML and use it!
- Stack: HTML, VML, MJML, Litmus
- Status: Live
Sample: the bulletproof CTA button
<!-- Bulletproof button: Outlook gets VML, every other client gets a padded anchor -->
<!--[if mso]>
<v:roundrect href="https://example.com"
style="height:48px;v-text-anchor:middle;width:220px;"
arcsize="14%" stroke="false" fillcolor="#1f6feb">
<w:anchorlock/>
<center style="color:#ffffff;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;font-weight:bold;">
Primary action
</center>
</v:roundrect>
<![endif]-->
<!--[if !mso]><!-->
<a href="https://example.com" style="background-color:#1f6feb;border-radius:8px;
color:#ffffff;display:inline-block;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px;
font-weight:bold;line-height:48px;text-align:center;text-decoration:none;width:220px;">
Primary action
</a>
<!--<![endif]-->