Best practices for optimizing your emails for both light and dark modes, and suggestions for how to design emails that will look great across the board.
Catering to both dark and light mode settings when sending marketing emails can be tricky. When an email client is set to dark mode, it sometimes results in the colors of the email background and text being inverted. This means all black text is automatically set to white, and, in the absence of a pre-set background color, the background of the email will turn black. If you’re not careful, this can result in wonky email design for a number of your email recipients.
While HubSpot does have a feature that allows you to preview how your emails will render across different email clients in both light and dark mode, it doesn’t have a method of auto-optimizing your email design for dark mode. Here’s some tips on how to create emails that look nice in both light and dark mode.
Best practices
Here's some general rules to follow when it comes to designing marketing emails in HubSpot.
Be sure your icons have transparent backgrounds
If an icon has a white background, but is placed up against a white email, it may seem like a non-issue. But if your email background is set to black in some email clients, the result will be less than optimal.
I created a sample email and tested it in HubSpot's email tester. Here's how it looks in light mode:
And here's how those same icons look in dark mode:
Use images that appear clearly on both white and dark backgrounds
PNG files render best on email clients. Ensure the color contrast works with both light and dark backgrounds, or that you add a drop shadow or translucent outline for increased visibility.
Don't set your background color to white, and text to black
If an email doesn't have a background color, some email clients such as Gmail will automatically set the background of emails viewed in dark mode to black. It may seem like the solution to this issue is to just add a white background to all your emails.
Unfortunately this only makes the problem worse. While the background will be white, so will your text, meaning all Gmail users with dark mode enabled will see is a plain white rectangle with no legible text.
Design suggestions
Here's some pro-tips we've picked up that make for great-looking emails, regardless of email client.
Add a white-to-transparent gradient
If your email design depends on an image with a white background, you can try adding a white-to-transparent gradient. It won’t be visible in light mode, but those viewing it in dark mode can enjoy a more cohesive experience.
Take this blog notification email we designed for one of our clients, Swigg. Here's how the email appears by default:
And here it is on Gmail's dark mode on mobile:
Design the email as images and upload them into HubSpot
A popular method used to ensure your email design stays consistent across all clients is to design the email as a series of images. Creating emails this way affords you a lot of flexibility when it comes to design, though it does mean you can't incorporate in-text links, or multiple different links in one section.
Add a header image, then let the rest of the email be set to white or black
Another sleek design choice is adding a stylish header image, then letting email client settings do their thing for the rest of the email.
Take this email from flavored syrup brand Torani. Here is what the email looks like in default light mode:
And here it is in dark mode:
Both retain their design and appeal, and don't require your designer to create an entire email's worth of images.