CSS property · data last changed 10 Nov 2026
display in email clients
Works in 13 of 21. Partial in Gmail Android, Gmail iOS, Outlook Classic and 5 more.
Your reader in Outlook Classic may not see display the way you wrote it, even if it looks right where you tested it.
caniemail (MIT) via @emailens/engine 0.18.22
What to do instead in Outlook Classic
Build columns as inline-block <div> elements and wrap them in an MSO ghost table: <!--[if mso]><table><tr><td width="300"><![endif]--> before each column and the closing tags after it. Outlook Classic then gets real table cells at fixed widths while every other client gets inline-block columns that wrap. For hiding, put display: none on each element you need gone, including images and nested tables, and use mso-hide: all for Outlook Classic.
- Buggy.
display:nonedoes not inherit to inner tables. - Partial. Only supports
display:none(but not on<img>).
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display is not among the 24 features we have screenshotted on real installs. The ones we have →
All 21 clients, problems first
| Client | Support |
|---|---|
| Gmail Android | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Gmail iOS | Partial See caveat 1 |
| Outlook Classic | Partial See caveat 2 |
| Yahoo Mail | Partial See caveat 3 |
| Yahoo Mail Android | Partial See caveat 3 |
| Yahoo Mail iOS | Partial See caveat 3 |
| AOL Mail | Partial See caveat 3 |
| Fastmail | Partial See caveat 4 |
Works in 13: Gmail, Outlook 365, Outlook (New) and 10 more. Show all
| Client | Support |
|---|---|
| Gmail | Works |
| Outlook 365 | Works |
| Outlook (New) | Works |
| Outlook iOS | Works |
| Outlook Android | Works |
| Outlook for Mac | Works |
| Apple Mail | Works |
| Apple Mail iOS | Works |
| Samsung Mail | Works |
| Thunderbird | Works |
| HEY Mail | Works |
| Proton Mail | Works |
| Superhuman | Works |
Caveats (4)
- 1. Gmail Android, Gmail iOS: Partial.
flex,grid,flow-root,contents,inline flow-root,inline flex,inline grid,initial,revert,unsetare not supported with non Google accounts. - 2. Outlook Classic: Buggy.
display:nonedoes not inherit to inner tables. Partial. Only supportsdisplay:none(but not on<img>). - 3. Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Mail Android, Yahoo Mail iOS, AOL Mail: Partial.
flow-root,inline-flex,inline-grid,inline flow,contents,revertare not supported. - 4. Fastmail: Partial. Two-value syntax are combined into a single one with a dash.
Caveats as recorded by caniemail (MIT), one entry per wording.
How display behaves
The display property decides how an element lays out: block, inline-block, none, flex, grid. In email, block, inline and none are safe almost everywhere, and the trouble sits in the newer values and in Outlook Classic. Outlook Classic only understands display: none, so the inline-block columns at the heart of most responsive emails need a fallback there.
- Outlook Classic only supports display: none, and not on <img>. A display: none on a table does not hide the tables nested inside it.
- Gmail's apps, when used with a non-Google account, do not support flex, grid, flow-root, contents and the two-value forms.
- Yahoo Mail and AOL do not support flow-root, inline-flex, inline-grid, contents or revert.
- Fastmail merges two-value syntax into one dashed keyword.
Questions
Does display: inline-block work in Outlook?
Not in Outlook Classic, which only supports display: none. Wrap inline-block columns in MSO conditional ghost tables so Outlook Classic lays them out as table cells.
Can I use display: block on a td?
Yes, in clients that read your media queries. Outlook Classic ignores it, so the cells stay side by side there, which is usually the desktop layout you wanted anyway.
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