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How Editions Render Across Clients and Devices

In short​

An Edition is not a fixed image — it is HTML and inline styles that each recipient's email app interprets on its own. Because every email client (Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, and dozens of mobile apps) uses a different rendering engine with different rules, the same Edition can look slightly — or very — different from one subscriber to the next. Your job as an Author is not to make it pixel-identical everywhere, but to make it read clearly everywhere.

Why it matters​

Rendering differences are the most common reason a Broadcast "looks broken" for some subscribers but perfect for you. Knowing why it happens helps you:

  • Avoid layouts that collapse in Outlook or get clipped in Gmail.
  • Set expectations when a colleague forwards a screenshot that doesn't match your preview.
  • Decide when a difference is cosmetic (safe to ship) versus when it hides key content.

How it works​

Three factors drive how an Edition renders:

  • The email client's engine. Some clients strip or ignore modern CSS, resize fonts, or force their own dark-mode colors. This is outside our platform's control — it is decided by the recipient's app.
  • The device and screen size. Responsive Editions reflow columns and scale images for narrow phone screens; a two-column block may stack into one column on mobile.
  • Recipient settings. Blocked images, "view in browser," dark mode, and accessibility zoom all change the final result.

The platform builds each Edition with broadly compatible, email-safe markup and inlines styles so most clients render it consistently. It cannot override a client's own quirks — so the practical approach is to keep layouts simple, always include alt text and a text fallback, and preview across clients before sending.

Confirm the exact preview and test-send steps in your account.

Canonical terms: Author, Edition, Folder (Project Folder), Broadcast. See the Glossary.