Free Email Text Viewer
FreeFree email text viewer — build, test, and preview HTML emails across all major clients. No coding expertise required. 100% free.
Raw EML Input
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Email Text Viewer tool used for?
The Email Text Viewer tool helps email designers and developers build, preview, and test HTML emails across different rendering environments. HTML email requires a different approach to web development — email clients like Outlook use Word's rendering engine, which has limited CSS support. This tool accounts for those constraints, helping you identify issues before sending to real recipients.
Why does my HTML email look different in Outlook vs Gmail?
Outlook (2007-2021) uses Microsoft Word's HTML rendering engine, which has extremely limited CSS support — it ignores flexbox, CSS grid, CSS animations, and many modern properties. Gmail and Apple Mail use more capable rendering engines. This is why HTML emails use table-based layouts, inline styles, and VML for Outlook-specific features. Use our HTML Email Preview to see how your email renders across different clients before sending.
Should I inline CSS in HTML emails?
Yes — CSS should be inlined (written directly in style="" attributes) for HTML emails. Many email clients, especially Gmail, strip <style> blocks from the <head> entirely. Inline styles are the most reliable way to apply styling across all major email clients. Our CSS Inliner tool automates this process — paste your HTML with a <style> block and it outputs email-ready HTML with all styles inlined.
What HTML elements are safe to use in emails?
Email-safe HTML relies on table-based layouts, inline styles, and basic elements: <table>, <tr>, <td>, <img>, <a>, <p>, <br>, <strong>, <em>, <span>. Avoid <div> for layout (unreliable in Outlook), flexbox, CSS grid, JavaScript (blocked by all clients), web fonts (fallback to system fonts), SVG (poor support), and background-image in CSS (use bgcolor attribute instead). Use our HTML Email Preview to test compatibility.