When should you use Layout holds in every client?
email-layout-not-broken · visual · required
When should you use this check?
Run this on every template you have not previously proven across clients, and on any send generated by a tool rather than hand-built — imported and AI-written HTML is where unsupported CSS most often appears. One unsupported property collapses a layout in a single client and leaves it perfect everywhere else, so the recipients who see the broken version are never the ones you proofed to. Render it across the clients your list actually uses, because that is the only way the finding maps to real people.
When should you not?
Skip it on plain, single-column text mail where there is effectively no layout to break — most transactional notices and much personal-styled outreach. It is also not a design review: it answers whether the structure held, not whether the composition is good or the hierarchy sensible. Because every client and width is a render, it is the wrong check to run broadly when you are only trying to answer a source-level question such as whether an image host resolves.
What does it inspect?
The overall email layout must not be broken at any selected viewport.
What does a failure mean?
A failure means the structure did not hold in the client and width captured — columns collapsed, content overlapped, or elements ran outside the intended width. Read it as a statement about a slice of your audience, and note which slice, because the client named is usually also the explanation. A pass in other clients alongside the failure is the normal shape of this finding rather than a contradiction.
What are the Standard defaults — and why?
This check has no tunable thresholds. It is a rendered structural judgement about the captured message, with no numeric limits or configurable lists — the only variables are which clients and widths the job renders, which are job settings rather than parameters. There is nothing here to calibrate per brand, because a collapsed layout is not a matter of preference.
How does an agent call it?
{
"type": "email",
"validations": [
"email-layout-not-broken"
]
}
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