HTML Email Testing with Litmus
In typical Microsoft fashion, the release of Outlook 2007 took a giant leap backwards in the way it renders HTML emails. You no longer have the ability to insert background images in divs or table cells, use CSS to float or position elements, and there is poor support for padding and margin. All of that aside, the bigger problem is that all of the non-PC users who design and create these HTML emails need a fast way to test their designs across problematic Outlook as well as the many other various email clients out there. It is possible to do this by creating multiple test email accounts, or finding a friend who uses Outlook, but it's a seemingly daunting and time consuming task.
Being a Mac user and unable to think of anyone using Outlook 2007, I found myself wondering how to test a HTML email I was designing. After doing a little research, I stumbled upon this great web app called Litmus. It allows you to select any/all of the following email clients you would like to test (with even more to come soon):
- Outlook 2007
- Outlook 2003
- Outlook 2002/XP
- Outlook 2000
- Gmail
- Hotmail
- AOL Mail
- Yahoo! Mail
Using the Litmus interface couldn't be easier. You click a button to create a "New Email Test", and it then specifies a randomly generated email address for you to send your HTML email to. Once it picks up your email, within seconds it has grabbed screen shots within each of the email clients you specified. Each screen shot is viewable by its "Window" view (with images on and off) and "Full Page" view (With images on and off). You can then continue retest your emails as many times as you like, and Litmus will create a new version for each test. You can view a screenshot here.
If I was in the business of creating HTML emails on a daily basis, this would absolutely be an indispensable application. Not only does it save valuable time by testing a variety of email clients simultaneously, but the Litmus application also has an incredibly clean, well-designed and user-friendly interface. It's a little pricey at $62/month, but with a one-week free trial, it was the perfect solution to my one-time problem. http://litmusapp.com/