Apple Mail
Apple Mail macOS and iOS rendering behavior and CSS support.
Apple Mail uses WebKit (Safari's rendering engine) and has the best CSS support of any email client.
Variants
| ID | Platform | Engine |
|---|---|---|
apple-mail-macos | macOS desktop | WebKit |
apple-mail-ios | iOS/iPadOS | WebKit |
Both support dark mode.
CSS support
Apple Mail supports nearly all modern CSS:
- Full flexbox and grid support
border-radius,box-shadow,opacity- CSS transforms, transitions, and animations
position: relative/absolutebackground-imagewith gradients- CSS filters
- Media queries including
prefers-color-scheme
Dark mode behavior
Apple Mail respects @media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) media queries. If your email includes dark mode styles, Apple Mail uses them and does not apply forced color inversion. If no prefers-color-scheme styles are present, Apple Mail falls back to partial inversion:
- Light backgrounds are inverted to dark
- Text colors are adjusted for contrast
- Images with transparency may look different on dark backgrounds
Add a prefers-color-scheme: dark media query to control the dark mode experience instead of relying on Apple Mail's automatic inversion.
Recommendations
Apple Mail is the most permissive email client. If your email looks good in Apple Mail, focus testing on Gmail and Outlook where most compatibility issues occur.