Email Development
Hexadecimal vs. RGB Values in HTML Emails
We had a recent question in our forums regarding which clients support hexadecimal vs. RGB values so I figured I would publish the results of my research to our blog as well.
In summary, it is best to avoid using rgb(255,0,0) values when developing HTML emails. Long hex (#F00F00), Short hex (#F00) and colors (red) are supported in all the email clients I tested.
What I found interesting is that some clients support RGB colors on fonts but not in backgrounds or borders. I should point out that I used inline CSS in all of my testing.
The clients that do NOT offer full support for RGB values are: Hotmail, Lotus Notes 6.5, 7 and 8.
Font Color Test
| Web | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| AOL Web | ||||
| Gmail New | ||||
| Hotmail | ||||
| Yahoo (Classic) | ||||
| Yahoo (Current) | ||||
| Yahoo (Beta) | ||||
| Desktop | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| Entourage 2004 | ||||
| Entourage 2008 | ||||
| Live Mail | ||||
| Lotus Notes 6.5 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 7 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 8 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 8.5 | ||||
| Mac Mail | ||||
| Outlook 2003 | ||||
| Outlook 2007 | ||||
| Outlook 2010 | ||||
| Outlook Express | ||||
| Thunderbird 2 | ||||
| Thunderbird 3 | ||||
| Mobile | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| Android 2.2 | ||||
| Android Gmail 2.2 | ||||
| iPad 3.0 | ||||
| iPad Gmail | ||||
| iPhone 3.0 | ||||
| iPhone Gmail | ||||
Border Color Test
| Web | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| AOL Web | ||||
| Gmail New | ||||
| Hotmail | ||||
| Yahoo (Classic) | ||||
| Yahoo (Current) | ||||
| Yahoo (Beta) | ||||
| Desktop | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| Entourage 2004 | ||||
| Entourage 2008 | ||||
| Live Mail | ||||
| Lotus Notes 6.5 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 7 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 8 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 8.5 | ||||
| Mac Mail | ||||
| Outlook 2003 | ||||
| Outlook 2007 | ||||
| Outlook 2010 | ||||
| Outlook Express | ||||
| Thunderbird 2 | ||||
| Thunderbird 3 | ||||
| Mobile | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| Android 2.2 | ||||
| Android Gmail 2.2 | ||||
| iPad 3.0 | ||||
| iPad Gmail | ||||
| iPhone 3.0 | ||||
| iPhone Gmail | ||||
Background Color Test
| Web | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| AOL Web | ||||
| Gmail New | ||||
| Hotmail | ||||
| Yahoo (Classic) | ||||
| Yahoo (Current) | ||||
| Yahoo (Beta) | ||||
| Desktop | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| Entourage 2004 | ||||
| Entourage 2008 | ||||
| Live Mail | ||||
| Lotus Notes 6.5 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 7 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 8 | ||||
| Lotus Notes 8.5 | ||||
| Mac Mail | ||||
| Outlook 2003 | ||||
| Outlook 2007 | ||||
| Outlook 2010 | ||||
| Outlook Express | ||||
| Thunderbird 2 | ||||
| Thunderbird 3 | ||||
| Mobile | ||||
| Short Hex (#F00) | Long Hex (#F00F00) | RGB(255,0,0) | Color Name (red) | |
| Android 2.2 | ||||
| Android Gmail 2.2 | ||||
| iPad 3.0 | ||||
| iPad Gmail | ||||
| iPhone 3.0 | ||||
| iPhone Gmail | ||||
As you can see, my primary focus was on hexadecimal vs. RGB and I used inline CSS. I will research background colors and images – defined by inline CSS vs. HTML attributes in another post.
