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Knowledge Base Home aero-right Image Gallery aero-right Troubleshooting Images in Email

Troubleshooting Images in Email

Image Gallery Updated on June 27, 2023

You created a fantastic email that is ready to be sent, but when you test it, your images are not displaying properly. Depending on the inbox client, your readers can experience image issues.

CONSIDER

To prevent image display problems, we highly recommend you send test emails before sending to your entire contact list and also use the Inbox Checker feature.


Image not uploading

Possible reasons ↓
The image is too big

The maximum file upload is 5 MB. If the image is larger than 5 MB it will not be accepted.

Image format not accepted

Benchmark supports JPEG, JPG, PNG, and GIF image formats. To know more about supported image formats, click here.

Sometimes special characters or a file name that is long may not allow your image to be uploaded. If that is the case, you will see an error message. Please, try changing, shortening, or taking out special characters from the name.

If the problem persists and the image dimension and format are correct, try clearing your cache or with a different browser.

SUGGESTION

To learn how to upload images, click here.

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Resized image

The recommended width for images is 640 px; if the width is larger than 640 px our image editor will try to resize the image.  The width 640 px limit is set to keep the email responsive and prevent display issues in the inbox. The editor determines if an image needs to be resized based on a combination of the image width and the image weight. If you want to use wider images, you can test the images in your emails using the inbox checker feature.

IMPORTANT

Images bigger than 5 MB will not be accepted or compressed.

SUGGESTION

To learn more about supported images, click here.

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Static GIF

Possible reasons ↓
Editing a GIF in our image editor 
The GIF is larger than 200 KB

SUGGESTION

Check out our blog on How to Use GIFs with Email Marketing.

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Images not displaying in the inbox

Possible reasons ↓
Inbox provider blocking images
The browser is blocking the images
Firewall or spam filters 
Broken URL and Host Issues

SUGGESTION

To learn how to upgrade your image hosting, click here.

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ISP Rendering Issues

You could experience graphic rendering issues depending on the inbox your contacts are using. Here are the most common rendering issues with ISP’s and how to fix them.

Outlook
  • If an image is larger than 1728 px, Outlook could crop, distort or omit the image. To prevent this, avoid images with a height larger than 1728 px.
  • Some Outlook versions may ignore paddings and margins around images. If that is the case, you can use an image editor to add the padding as part of the image.
  • Outlook could add white space around the image. To fix this issue, we recommend you reorganize your email content and send email tests until you see the problem fixed.
  • The Outlook may not recognize images resized within the HTML code. To prevent this, insert images by using the correct size.
Gmail

Emails larger than 102 KB run the risk of being clipped by Gmail. If this happens, Gmail adds a link for the reader to expand the email. However, Benchmark cannot control this action and can not see how many contacts clicked on the Expand option.

If your email is clipped, this is what your contacts will see:

Here are some suggestions to prevent email clipping:

  • Focus on your content. Keep it concise. If you need to provide more information, add video links and links to know more and read more. Use CTAs to send a contact to a landing page.
  • Create your own content and avoid copying and pasting. First, because your content will be original and unique, and second, you could copy external hidden HTML code by copying and pasting, which could increase your email size. If you need to paste, use the Paste option in the email editor.
  • Don’t use the same subject line in more than one email campaign. Gmail could group your emails if they have the same subject line; this can happen with regular and test emails. To avoid your emails being grouped, use a different subject line for test emails and every campaign you send.

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Blurry or pixelated image

Possible reasons ↓
The image was resized
Low resolution or image is too small
The original image is blurry, pixelated, zoomed in, or compressed

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Different image colors

Your images may look dull if not in the correct color mode for electronic devices.

RGB is the color mode used by screen displays with a combination of red, green, and blue. Images used for social media, emails, or anything displayed in electronic media should be in RGB color mode.

CMYK is the color mode you should use for anything you print with ink. Our Image Gallery does not support the CMYK format.

Images in CMYK used for online media will look different, for example:

Usually, images taken from the internet are already in RGB color mode.

CONSIDER

To learn more about accepted image formats, click here.

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Slow loading images

Possible reasons ↓
The image is too big
Image format
Unclean code
Bad hosting

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Can I use background images?

The short answer is no. Multiple versions of email clients do not support background images. Inboxes may not display your email correctly for this reason.

Some email clients that support background images are Gmail, Yahoo, iOS Mail, and Apple Mail; the rest of the email clients do not support background images. Instead, we recommend you use a background color.

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Can I use a single image email?

As we only have regulations on image width and not height, it could be tempting to use a single image email or even an image map for the entire email campaign.

But let’s see the following scenarios:

  1. If the subscriber has disabled images, that subscriber won’t see anything in your email.
  2. If the image is too big, it could take a long time to load, so the subscriber may not wait to see your content.
  3. Sending a single image email is considered a bad practice. Spam filters may tag you as a spammer and block your campaign. A good balance between text and graphics could be 60% text 40% images.
  4. What about if the subscriber opens the email on a smartphone, which most do. A single-image email might not fit the screen since a single-image email is not responsive, and the subscribers may not visualize the entire content. In addition, some information can be too small, unreadable, or the CTA is not functional.

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What happens if I delete an image from the image gallery or host site?

When you remove an image from the image gallery, the image in the email will no longer display. The image is no longer visible because images in emails need to be hosted online to be accessible online.

If you delete images to save space, we recommend purchasing the Image Hosting add-on, adding the Image Hosting add-on will increase your image storage space to Unlimited.

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Suggestions: Stock images, alt text, using the correct size and formating

  • If you want to know more about Benchmark supported image formats or how to find an image size or dimension, click here.
  • Including a relevant Alt Text is important, click here to learn more.
  • We encourage you to send test emails before sending them to your entire contact list and also use our Inbox Checker feature to ensure results.
  • Do you need images? Check out our stock photo resources.
  • Learn here about our image block options and how to add them to your campaigns.

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If you have any questions, please contact our support team.