Building HTML Emails using Illustrator

[mm_smith]

Hello everyone!

I'm working with a company sending out an email blast on our behalf.  They require the artwork to be HTML and have hosted images / landing pages included etc.  I normally work with Illustrator doing any graphics but I am not at all familiar with working with HTML.  Does anyone know how I can convert a finished Illustrator to HTML (with live links), if that is possible?

Any guidance anyone has would be much appreciated.

Thanks!!

[Mylenium]

File --> Save for Web and Devices. Requires slices for working links and such. Regardless of these features existing, it's a futile exercise. The HTML generated this way is in no way compliant with any currently accepted standards or best practices for web design, so it will fall apart and you have wasted your time for nothing. or straight answer: Leave it be, hand such tasks over to a web designer.

Mylenium

[Bert_Philippus-Vf91WV]

I agree with Mylenium, let the pros handle it.

I create html emails regularly, and it has taken me a while to get reasonably functional results in most email programs.  If you do want to try to create an html email, consider the following:

1. The html generated by Illustrator is useless;

2. Get used to doing everything the oldfashioned way. That means use tables to position elements, use font declarations for each paragraph separately, that kind of stuff;

3. Be very careful about using any CSS, it is not well supported;

4. If you do use CSS, do not use an external style sheet, also don't put anything important in the header, because some email programs strip the header with all your cool stuff in it (as in CSS); Inline CSS may or may not work, but it is really the only option;

5.  DO NOT EVEN TRY to include any scripting.

I fint it strange that a mass email company would ask you to provide html in the first place, but hey...

Bert

[mm_smith]

Thank you both so much for your input - the answer to leave it to those who

know better is perfect! Bert, you're completely correct about the oddity of

requiring polished html - but it was the fact that they had published

guidelines on how to do so that led to me to believe that there might be an

easy fix and I could do it all along.

Thanks again.

[shunithD]

mm_smith wrote:

Hello everyone!

I'm working with a company sending out an email blast on our behalf.  They require the artwork to be HTML and have hosted images / landing pages included etc.  I normally work with Illustrator doing any graphics but I am not at all familiar with working with HTML.  Does anyone know how I can convert a finished Illustrator to HTML (with live links), if that is possible?

Any guidance anyone has would be much appreciated.

Thanks!!

Further to what Mylenium and Bert have said... if you think you can do it, then you need a program like Dreamweaver. Caveats:

1. Make sure all CSS is inline

2. You'd need to upload the iamges to a server with absolute (http://www.xxx.com/images/xxxx.jpg, etc.) links in the html

3. You can also create the entire html mailer with images... meaning slice and upload... making sure the html is ok

4. You need to remove document html compliant data from the header...

5. Basically... if you don't know what you're doing it's too complicated...

Therefore, the best solution is to either send the email blasters the text and images with a layout... or pay someone, who knows what they're doing, to create it for you.