CSS Properties

background-origin

CSS property · 13 supported, 2 partial, 6 unsupported across 21 clients

13 of 21 email clients render background-origin fully (Sep 2, 2026 data); it breaks outright in Outlook (New), Outlook Classic, Yahoo Mail and 3 more.

5/7 webmail, 4/6 desktop, 4/8 mobile clients support background-origin fully.
Unsupported in Outlook (New), Outlook Classic, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail Android and 2 more.
Partial in Gmail Android, Gmail iOS, behavior differs from browsers, test before relying on it.
Outlook Classic (Word engine, supported to at least 2029) does not fully support background-origin, and its replacement changes little here; see the deprecation diff.
Across all clients, only 6 of 298 tracked HTML/CSS features render identically everywhere.

Source: caniemail.com (MIT), via the Emailens engine. Last tested upstream Feb 28, 2019, synced by Emailens Sep 2, 2026.

Client Support

Client	Category	Engine	Support
Gmail	webmail	Gmail Web	Supported
Gmail Android	mobile	Gmail Mobile	Partial
Gmail iOS	mobile	Gmail Mobile	Partial
Outlook 365	webmail	Outlook Web	Supported
Outlook (New)	desktop	Outlook Web	Unsupported^{See caveat 1}
Outlook Classic	desktop	Microsoft Word	Unsupported
Outlook iOS	mobile	Outlook Mobile	Supported
Outlook Android	mobile	Outlook Mobile	Supported
Outlook for Mac	desktop	WebKit	Supported
Apple Mail	desktop	WebKit	Supported
Apple Mail iOS	mobile	WebKit	Supported
Yahoo Mail	webmail	Yahoo	Unsupported
Yahoo Mail Android	mobile	Yahoo	Unsupported
Yahoo Mail iOS	mobile	Yahoo	Unsupported
Samsung Mail	mobile	Samsung	Supported
Thunderbird	desktop	Gecko	Supported
HEY Mail	webmail	WebKit	Supported
Proton Mail	webmail	Proton	Supported
AOL Mail	webmail	AOL	Unsupported
Fastmail	webmail	Fastmail	Supported
Superhuman	desktop	Blink	Supported

Documented caveats (1)

1.Outlook (New): Background images origin can be used in VML with the origin attribute. See VML documentation.

Caveats recorded by caniemail.com (MIT) and carried verbatim, one entry per wording rather than per client.

Client-by-client behaviour for background-origin

Fully supports background-origin (13): Gmail, Outlook 365, Outlook iOS, Outlook Android, Outlook for Mac, Apple Mail, Apple Mail iOS, Samsung Mail, Thunderbird, HEY Mail, Proton Mail, Fastmail, Superhuman.

Partial support (2): Gmail Android, Gmail iOS. Expect rendering quirks unique to each engine. Partial support typically means a subset of values, an ignored shorthand, or sanitizer-specific rewrites.

No support (6): Outlook (New), Outlook Classic, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail Android, Yahoo Mail iOS, AOL Mail. Plan fallbacks for these clients before relying on background-origin in production sends.