Spacing Issues

Common Spacing Issues in HTML Email Templates and How to Fix Them

HTML emails often render inconsistently across different email clients, leading to frustrating spacing issues. These problems typically arise from how various email platforms handle elements like empty paragraphs, line height, margin, and padding. Below are the most common spacing issues and solutions, along with sample code for fixing them.

To access the HTML code, you can click View HTML in the email content editor toolbar shown below.

1. Empty Paragraphs (<p>)

Empty paragraphs are often a cause of unwanted spacing in HTML emails. Some email clients render these as a full blank line, adding unnecessary space between sections.

Issue Example:

<p></p> <!-- Remove Empty paragraph <p></p> adding space -->

Solution:

Instead of leaving empty <p> tags, remove them or use a non-breaking space ( ) to control spacing where necessary.

<p>&nbsp;</p> <!-- Remove Empty Paragraph -->

2. Line Height

Inconsistent line heights across email clients can lead to excessive spacing between lines of text.

Issue Example:

<p style="line-height: 2.5;">This paragraph may have too much space between lines.</p>

Solution:

Reduce or adjust the line-height property to a more standardized value like 1.2 or 1.5 for better consistency across email clients.

<p style="line-height: 1.2;">This paragraph has controlled line spacing.</p>

Best Practice:

Always define line-height in percentage or unitless format for best results in email clients.

<p style="line-height: 150%;">Using percentage for line-height works well across platforms.</p>

3. Margin Issues

Margins are often ignored or interpreted inconsistently by email clients like Gmail or Outlook, which can lead to unexpected gaps between elements.

Issue Example:

<p style="margin: 20px 0;">This might not display consistently across email clients.</p>

Solution:

Instead of using margin, which can be unpredictable, use padding to ensure consistent spacing.

<p style="padding: 10px 0;">Padding is more reliable for spacing in emails.</p>

Best Practice:

Set margin: 0; in your CSS to avoid any unexpected default margins.

<p style="margin: 0; padding: 10px 0;">Combining margin and padding control for consistency.</p>

4. Padding

While padding is more reliable than margin in most email clients, it can still cause issues if not handled correctly. In particular, nested tables or images with padding can create uneven spacing.

Issue Example:

<table style="padding: 20px;">
  <tr>
    <td>Content inside the table</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Solution:

Apply padding to table cells (<td>) rather than the entire table, as this gives more control.

<table>
  <tr>
    <td style="padding: 20px;">Content inside the table</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Best Practice:

For email templates, it’s a good idea to inline your padding styles rather than using an external stylesheet to ensure the styles are applied consistently.

<td style="padding: 15px;">Padding applied at the cell level</td>

5. Extra Space in Images (Gmail issue)

Some email clients, particularly Gmail, add extra spacing below images due to the default inline display behavior.

Issue Example:

<img src="banner.jpg" alt="Banner Image">

Solution:

To remove the extra space, set the image's display to block or add vertical-align: bottom; to the image.

<img src="banner.jpg" alt="Banner Image" style="display: block;">

Alternatively, you can use:

<img src="banner.jpg" alt="Banner Image" style="vertical-align: bottom;">

6. Table Cell Spacing and Border Collapsing

HTML emails often rely on tables for layout. If tables are not structured correctly, they can have unwanted gaps between cells, or borders may appear misaligned.

Issue Example:

<table cellspacing="10" border="1">
  <tr>
    <td>Cell 1</td>
    <td>Cell 2</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Solution:

Use border-collapse: collapse; to ensure that borders and cells are closely aligned with no gaps between them.

<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0;">
  <tr>
    <td style="border: 1px solid #ccc;">Cell 1</td>
    <td style="border: 1px solid #ccc;">Cell 2</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Best Practice:

Set cellpadding and cellspacing to 0 for tables to ensure no unwanted spacing.

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;">

7. Unwanted Gaps Around Links

If there’s unintended extra space around text links or buttons, it could be due to inline-block elements or whitespace in the code.

Issue Example:

<a href="#" style="display: inline-block;">Click Here</a>

Solution:

Use display: block for buttons and remove unnecessary whitespace between inline elements.

<a href="#" style="display: block; padding: 10px; text-align: center;">Click Here</a>

8. Handling Break (<br>) Tags

Multiple <br> tags can create excessive spacing between lines. Some email clients might interpret them differently, resulting in inconsistent spacing.

Issue Example:

<br><br><br> <!-- Too much spacing between lines -->

Solution:

Replace multiple <br> tags with controlled padding or margin adjustments to reduce excessive gaps.

<p style="padding-bottom: 20px;">Controlled spacing between paragraphs</p>

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Summary of Best Practices for Managing Spacing in HTML Emails

1. Remove empty tags like <p></p> and unnecessary <br> tags.

2. Use padding instead of margin for consistent spacing.

3. Use line-height values around 1.4–1.5 for text readability.

4. Apply border-collapse: collapse; to tables for tighter structure.

5. Always test your email in different clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.) to ensure spacing looks correct across platforms.

By following these guidelines and addressing common spacing issues, you can ensure your email looks clean, professional, and consistent for all recipients.