--- title: "Reasons why emails may look different for some subscribers" updated: 2026-07-09 --- # Reasons why emails may look different for some subscribers Subscribers can see your email differently depending on their email client, device, and personal settings. This can show up as images that don't load, colors or fonts that don't match your Style panel, dark mode changing your design, or other rendering differences. Before publishing, it's best practice to [send a test email](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4413249011607) to preview how your post looks across different inboxes. This article covers the most common causes below. --- ## Email client settings Some email clients may block images due to factors like sender reputation or security settings. Improving your sending reputation can reduce this risk, but it’s important to know that certain subscribers' email providers may block images automatically. You can’t override these settings, so here’s how to address image blocking: - **Include a link to the web version of your email**, which is automatically added by beehiiv. - **Set the alt attribute for all images** when uploading them, ensuring a fallback description if images don’t load. - **Use a balanced mix of text and images** instead of relying solely on images to convey your message. --- ## Strict firewall settings In organizations with strict firewall policies, such as government agencies, email servers may block images hosted on external domains like those used by beehiiv. To resolve this, firewall administrators will need to safelist the following image hosting domains: - media.beehiiv.net - \*.beehiiv.com - \*.beehiiv.net --- ## Subscriber privacy settings Some subscribers may have privacy settings that block images by default. While you can’t control these settings, [enabling double opt in](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/13081072798743) for your subscribers and encouraging them to adjust their preferences can help mitigate this issue. --- ## Email size and clipping Large emails may get [clipped by certain providers like Gmail](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4413255394583). beehiiv will notify you during the drafting process if your email is approaching the size limit, so you can adjust your content to prevent clipping and ensure all images load. ![](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/article_attachments/38461546822423) --- ## How dark mode affects email appearance Whether your newsletter looks different in dark mode depends mostly on the subscriber's email client, since each client decides for itself how to handle color in dark mode. beehiiv also generates a darkened version of your theme's colors for clients that support dark mode detection in email, but this only applies in a subset of clients (Apple Mail). Most other major clients handle dark mode with their own automatic color inversion instead, which is outside of beehiiv's control. ### What to expect across email clients - **Apple Mail:** May invert colors, especially for backgrounds and text. - **Gmail:** Automatically inverts colors and does not use beehiiv's dark mode color values. - **Outlook:** Behavior differs between Mac and Windows. Typically inverts colors on mobile. - **Yahoo:** Tends to invert colors less aggressively than other clients. > **Tech Note** > > This is a known limitation across the email industry, not something specific to beehiiv. Even the CSS trick most commonly suggested for forcing a light background only works in Apple Mail and iOS Mail. Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo either ignore it or don't support it at all. ### Design recommendations for dark mode compatibility **Use transparent PNGs for logos and graphics:** Transparent PNGs adapt to both light and dark backgrounds. Consider a lighter version of your logo or a translucent outline so it stays visible on dark backgrounds. **Maintain good contrast between text and background:** Avoid low-contrast combinations, like light grey text on white. High contrast holds up better in both light and dark modes. **Stick with straightforward design choices:** Off-white or light grey backgrounds, clearly colored hyperlinks, and well-styled buttons render more predictably across clients and modes. **Test across major email clients:** [Send test emails](https://beehiivhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4413249011607) and switch between the Email, Web, Desktop, and Mobile preview views before publishing. For dark mode specifically, test with free accounts on Outlook, Apple Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo. For more advanced testing, third-party tools like Litmus can preview your emails across a wider range of clients and modes before you send. > **Pro Tip** > > You can add custom CSS specific to the email header from **Style > Advanced > Email Header** in the Post Builder. Keep in mind that not all clients support dark mode media queries, and clients like Gmail will ignore style overrides that try to force a light background. --- ## Why fonts may look different ### Why fonts may look different Email clients support far fewer fonts than web browsers do, so the Post Builder offers a curated set of email-safe fonts. Even when you pick a specific font, some subscribers may see a different one depending on their email client or device. ### How font fallback works Every font in the Post Builder has a built-in list of fallback fonts. If a subscriber's client doesn't support your chosen font, the email falls back to the next font in that list automatically. For example, choosing Poppins will attempt to load Poppins first. If that fails, which it will in Gmail and most other clients since Poppins isn't a web-safe font, the email falls back to Helvetica. CSS support also varies by client. Gmail strips out