Why is my email content different widths in the inbox?

Many people ask why their email designs are being stretched out.  Most of the time, the issue comes from the message content being larger than its container.  There are a few other reasons that can come up too.  Read on to learn why your template may be stretching out and how to fix it.

An Image is Too Large

When you add an image to a table or an editable region in a template, your image could be wider than the area the image was inserted into.  This causes the whole template to stretch so that the body appears wider than the header image. You can fix this by resizing your images using a photo editor, or by using the message editor's image editor.

Microsoft Rendering Images

Some versions of Outlook don't recognize the HTML needed to constrain images.  If you've uploaded an image to a template or campaign and resized it using only HTML, it may display at the original image size when viewed in Outlook. To avoid this, resize your images before uploading them or use the message editor's image editor.

Unbroken Characters

If you have a long string of unbroken characters, like a really long link or word, it can end up wider than the content area where it's being displayed. Instead of writing out the full link for subscribers to see, link some smaller text to the really long URL.

Padding on Images in Templates

Sometimes the template or table you're using in the HTML message will have padding by default.  If you insert an image with a width of 600px into a table that is 600px wide, but has 20px padding, it will stretch out the 600px table to 640px. In this case, it's best to resize the image using the message editor's image editor.