About

This is a Tailwind CSS config preset that changes some utility classes to use values that are better supported in email clients. It also includes plugins that generate utility classes that are useful for building HTML emails.

Installation

npm install tailwindcss-preset-email

Usage

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  presets: [
    require('tailwindcss-preset-email'),
  ],
}

Customization

You may override the preset by configuring Tailwind as you'd normally do.

// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
  presets: [
    require('tailwindcss-preset-email'),
  ],
  theme: {
    screens: {
      sm: '640px',
      md: '768px',
    },
  },
}

Configuration

The preset is a custom Tailwind CSS config that changes utility classes to use values that are better supported in email clients, either right in the config or through plugins.

important

The important key is set to true.

HTML emails often use inline CSS, so this ensures that any CSS generated by Tailwind uses !important to override inline styles (unless the inline styles themselves use !important).

screens

The screens config uses a desktop-first approach now:

{
  sm: {max: '600px'},
  xs: {max: '430px'},
}

When overriding screens, make sure the larger values are at the top of the object:

{
  md: {max: '768px'},
  sm: {max: '600px'},
  xs: {max: '430px'},
}

colors

The black and white color values are updated to prevent some email clients from automatically inverting them in dark mode.

colors: {
  black: '#000001',
  white: '#fffffe',
}

spacing

The spacing scale has been updated to use px values instead of rem.

spacing: {
  screen: '100vw',
  full: '100%',
  0: '0',
  0.5: '2px',
  1: '4px',
  1.5: '6px',
  2: '8px',
  // ...
}

borderRadius

The borderRadius scale has been updated to use px values instead of rem.

borderRadius: {
  none: '0px',
  sm: '2px',
  DEFAULT: '4px',
  md: '6px',
  lg: '8px',
  xl: '12px',
  '2xl': '16px',
  '3xl': '24px',
}

boxShadow

boxShadow utilities use the exact values from your config.

boxShadow: {
  sm: '0 1px 2px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05)',
  DEFAULT: '0 1px 3px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 1px 2px -1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)',
  md: '0 4px 6px -1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 2px 4px -2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)',
  lg: '0 10px 15px -3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 4px 6px -4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)',
  xl: '0 20px 25px -5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1), 0 8px 10px -6px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)',
  '2xl': '0 25px 50px -12px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.25)',
  inner: 'inset 0 2px 4px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05)',
}

dropShadow

Although not that much used in HTML email, the dropShadow utilities are now generated using the exact values from your config.

It defaults to this:

dropShadow: {
  sm: '0 1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05)',
  DEFAULT: [
    '0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)',
    '0 1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)',
  ],
  md: [
    '0 4px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.07)',
    '0 2px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.06)',
  ],
  lg: [
    '0 10px 8px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.04)',
    '0 4px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)',
  ],
  xl: [
    '0 20px 13px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03)',
    '0 8px 5px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.08)',
  ],
  '2xl': '0 25px 25px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15)',
  none: '0 0 #000',
}

fontFamily

fontFamily font stacks have been simplified to use web-safe fonts only.

fontFamily: {
  sans: ['ui-sans-serif', 'system-ui', '-apple-system', '"Segoe UI"', 'sans-serif'],
  serif: ['ui-serif', 'Georgia', 'Cambria', '"Times New Roman"', 'Times', 'serif'],
  mono: ['ui-monospace', 'Menlo', 'Consolas', 'monospace'],
}

fontSize

fontSize values have been updated to use px values instead of rem.

fontSize: {
  0: '0',
  xxs: '11px',
  xs: '12px',
  '2xs': '13px',
  sm: '14px',
  '2sm': '15px',
  base: '16px',
  lg: '18px',
  xl: '20px',
  '2xl': '24px',
  '3xl': '30px',
  '4xl': '36px',
  '5xl': '48px',
  '6xl': '60px',
  '7xl': '72px',
  '8xl': '96px',
  '9xl': '128px',
}

letterSpacing

letterSpacing values have been updated to use values from your width scale.

letterSpacing: theme => ({
  ...theme('width'),
})

lineHeight

Likewise, lineHeight values have been updated to use values from your width scale.

lineHeight: theme => ({
  ...theme('width'),
})

maxWidth

maxWidth values have been updated to use px values instead of rem, and now also use values from your width scale.

maxWidth: theme => ({
  ...theme('width'),
  xs: '160px',
  sm: '192px',
  md: '224px',
  lg: '256px',
  xl: '288px',
  '2xl': '336px',
  '3xl': '384px',
  '4xl': '448px',
  '5xl': '512px',
  '6xl': '576px',
  '7xl': '640px',
})

minHeight

minHeight values have been updated to use values from your width scale.

minHeight: theme => ({
  ...theme('width'),
})

minWidth

minWidth values have been updated to use values from your width scale.

minWidth: theme => ({
  ...theme('width'),
})

Plugins

The preset includes the following plugins:

tailwindcss-mso

Used for generating classes that are only supported by Microsoft Outlook's Word rendering engine, for Outlook on Windows (versions 2007 and up).

Documentation: https://github.com/maizzle/tailwindcss-mso

tailwindcss-email-variants

A Tailwind CSS plugin that provides variants for email client targeting hacks used in HTML emails.

Documentation: https://github.com/maizzle/tailwindcss-email-variants

borderSpacing

A custom plugin that generates border-spacing utilities that use static values instead of CSS variables.

Here's a diff of the output between Tailwind's original and the custom plugin:

- .border-spacing-x-1 {
-   --tw-border-spacing-x: 4px;
-   border-spacing: var(--tw-border-spacing-x) var(--tw-border-spacing-y);
- }
+ .border-spacing-x-1 {
+   border-spacing: 4px 0
+ }

boxShadow

A custom plugin that generates box-shadow utilities that use static values instead of CSS variables.

The downside to this is that shadow color utilities are disabled too.

- .shadow-sm {
-   --tw-shadow: 0 1px 2px 0 rgb(0 0 0 / 0.05);
-   --tw-shadow-colored: 0 1px 2px 0 var(--tw-shadow-color);
-   box-shadow: var(--tw-ring-offset-shadow, 0 0 #0000), var(--tw-ring-shadow, 0 0 #0000), var(--tw-shadow);
- }
+ .shadow-sm {
+   box-shadow: 0 1px 2px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05)
+ }

Filters

The following plugins that generate utilities for CSS filters have been updated to use static values instead of CSS variables:

• blur
• brightness
• contrast
• dropShadow
• grayscale
• hueRotate
• invert
• saturate
• sepia
• backdropBlur
• backdropBrightness
• backdropContrast
• backdropGrayscale
• backdropHueRotate
• backdropInvert
• backdropOpacity
• backdropSaturate
• backdropSepia

textDecoration

A custom plugin that generates text-decoration utilities that use the text-decoration property instead of text-decoration-line, which has poor support in email clients.

Here's a diff of the output between Tailwind's original and the custom plugin:

.underline {
-   text-decoration-line: underline;
+   text-decoration: underline
}