When should you use Images not cropped or clipped?
email-image-clipping · visual · recommended
When should you use this check?
Run this on image-heavy sends, and especially where images carry text, prices or a product's key detail — those are the cases where a crop changes the meaning rather than just the composition. It happens per client and per width, so it survives a proof sent to one inbox, which is the whole reason to render it across a client set. Add it whenever a template is being used at a new width or on a mobile-first list.
When should you not?
Skip it on plain or text-led mail where images are decorative or absent, since a cropped spacer is not a finding worth anyone's time. It is also not the check for images that fail to load, which is the hero-render and image-source territory, nor for images declared at the wrong size, which is the rendering check. If your images are deliberately designed to be cropped at the edges — a full-bleed background pattern — the finding will be technically correct and practically unwanted.
What does it inspect?
No image in the rendered email may be clipped, cropped, or scaled in a way that damages its message — cut-off text inside images, truncated faces or products, or visibly broken framing.
What does a failure mean?
A failure means an image was cut by the client in the captured width, and the cost depends entirely on what was cut. A crop through a price, a headline set inside the image, or a face is read by the recipient as a mistake instead of an offer; a crop through empty background is cosmetic. Because it is client and width specific, the finding tells you which slice of your audience saw the damaged version — usually the mobile one.
What are the Standard defaults — and why?
This check has no tunable thresholds. It is a rendered judgement about whether an image was cut in the captured client and width, with no percentage tolerance or configurable list to set. The levers available are which clients and widths you render, which belong to the job rather than to the check.
How does an agent call it?
{
"type": "email",
"validations": [
"email-image-clipping"
]
}
Who governs the Standard?
Schemafirst.org publishes community-governed standards for digital QA. ArbiterQA is a sponsor and commercial licensee of those standards; citation does not mean Schemafirst operates ArbiterQA.
Author ArbiterQA · Reviewed by ArbiterQA · 2026-08-14