So i have just received this email from 02, which is all well and good.
Upon opening it, i noticed that something was suspicious:
How on earth had they included shadows and gradients when my images are turned off in gmail?

I decided to crack this open in dreamweaver and delve into the code so you guys can see how they did it.

The Results Both Shocked And Surprised Me

It appears they have converted their gradient images to pure html tables, just a couple of pixels each.

We currently offer this service – but it is most commonly used for tiny logos and icons, not huge great backgrounds!

Anyways – this is the screenshot in Dreamweaver:

And finally, here is the snippet of the code used to generate the effect:

<td bgcolor=”#0a0e2b” height=”20″></td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=”#0b102e” height=”6″></td><td bgcolor=”#0b102e” height=”6″></td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=”#0c112f” height=”3″></td><td bgcolor=”#0c112f” height=”3″></td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=”#0b1131″ height=”4″></td><td bgcolor=”#0b1131″ height=”4″></td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=”#0c1131″ height=”1″></td>

(This is about 1/20th of the code)

The point of using an image to html service is simple:

If your images are visible when all others are blocked, your email WILL stand out.

We have an image to HTML service available – where we take your logo in JPEG, PNG or GIF format, and send it back to you as pure HTML for use in your newsletter. The result is that your logo will be visible – even if the readers email client does not show images by default.

Send yourself a demo below to see how it works in your inbox: