E-mail Graphic Standards

University identity

Always identify the University of Minnesota. The HTML part of any mass e-mail must contain a University of Minnesota wordmark in the header graphic. Inclusion of the block M and Driven to Discover logo are preferred.

Download the e-mail templates and use the header graphics to meet the wordmark requirement and include the preferred elements.

Image use

There are four basic recommendations when using images in e-mail:

• Always specify the height and width of images in a message and include an 'alt' tag. The specified height and width allows e-mail clients to more quickly render messages. The 'alt' tag provides screen reader users with useful text that will be read to them.
• Images must not be sent inline (embedded) in mass e-mail messages. Instead, images should be hosted on a Web server and should be referenced using an absolute URL in the image tag.
• Images used for e-mail should be kept separate from images used for Web sites so that any changes to Web site images don't effect images in e-mails that have been sent. Plan to retain images used for e-mail for some time; if recipients refer back to messages weeks or months after the message has been sent, it is ideal that the message images are still intact.
• Do not 'hotlink' to images on other servers. These images are susceptible to change and may affect content that has already been sent. Additionally, there are possible legal implications related to linking to others' images, just as there are for improper use of copyrighted images; if an image is available on a Web site, it is not implicit that the image may be reproduced.

Begin with the e-mail templates

The e-mail templates provide a clean HTML and text solution that is compliant with University e-mail standards and CAN-SPAM regulations and can be customized for your needs.