# Email Spacing and Formatting Issues **URL:** \ **Category:** Email Marketing Tool\ **Tags:** marketing-email\ **Created:** [September 30, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/email-spacing-and-formatting-issues/140352 "2025-09-30T17:33:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![radberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@radberry](https://community.hubspot.com/u/radberry)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/email-spacing-and-formatting-issues/140352/1 "2025-09-30T17:33:27Z")
Hello, When our marketing emails are forwarded, the formatting and spacing get distorted and looks spammy and unprofessional (see image at bottom for small example). Could you help us understand what causes this behavior? Is there anything we can do to prevent these formatting issues from happening in the first place? Thanks in advance for your support! ![157107i91C2D9CA68FBFF25.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/e/5/e516b1071ed87f810fc84fa8a8b87a6e5035dad0.png) ---
**Author:** ![STierney](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/stierney/32/186066_2.png) [@STierney](https://community.hubspot.com/u/STierney)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/email-spacing-and-formatting-issues/140352/2 "2025-09-30T18:22:18Z")
Hey @radberry - thanks so much for posting in the Community! To clarify - are you seeing these issues in your marketing emails when you send them from within HubSpot, or _only_ when you receive them after being sent via HubSpot and then forward them on to a secondary user? Shane, Community Manager ---
**Author:** ![radberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@radberry](https://community.hubspot.com/u/radberry)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/email-spacing-and-formatting-issues/140352/3 "2025-10-01T14:00:46Z")
Hello, The error is seen when an external contact forwards a marketing email that was initially sent through HubSpot. Thank you for your assistance. ---
**Author:** ![STierney](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/stierney/32/186066_2.png) [@STierney](https://community.hubspot.com/u/STierney)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 5:38pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/email-spacing-and-formatting-issues/140352/4 "2025-10-01T17:38:28Z")
Hey @radberry - thanks for the follow-up here! My understanding at this point is that this behavior is not uncommon. I found [this Community thread](https://community.hubspot.com/t5/Email-Marketing-Tool/Forwarding-an-email-creates-unwanted-format-changes/m-p/378171), which addresses this very issue. This thread links [this article](https://www.litmus.com/blog/when-forwarded-emails-break), which covers what causes HMTL email breaks when forwarding emails, and it appears that this is not HubSpot-specific. I hope this helps to clarify the behavior! Shane, Senior Community Moderator ---
**Author:** ![George-Murray](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/george-murray/32/87044_2.png) [@George-Murray](https://community.hubspot.com/u/George-Murray)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2025, 9:20am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/email-spacing-and-formatting-issues/140352/5 "2025-10-24T09:20:45Z")
hi @radberry We too have encountered this issue, after some internal testing it occurs when forwarded from an outlook accout. Outlook already displays emails in its own way (removing any shape formating on CTA’s being a perosnal bug bear). When we tested forwarding from Gmail, Yahoo etc the occurance was far less apparent. In regards to ways around it, I am not sure to be honest as @STierney mentioned, it isnt HubSpot specific. Perhaps you could try using smart content for all those with Outlook emails, perhaps with less seperate sections which is where the formating appears to be affected most? **The big positive form someone on the outside** its great that end users of your emails are feeling it is worth forwarding so that’s a win at least! ---
**Author:** ![dsanchezRW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@dsanchezRW](https://community.hubspot.com/u/dsanchezRW)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2026, 9:09pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/email-spacing-and-formatting-issues/140352/6 "2026-04-15T21:09:14Z")
We’re having this issue. Its probably because the HS emails don’t let us define the width (dimensions) of most of the modules and the overall email template. I notice that the images will stay the exact width as design but not the text modules. And this is for a simple 1 column layout. Coding this same email and then copy/pasting into outlook: Outlook translates the template into a table and retains the dimensions. Just needs some minor styling adjustments, but it looks great, even after its forwarded. ---
**Author:** ![chighsmith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/77aa72/32.png) [@chighsmith](https://community.hubspot.com/u/chighsmith)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2026, 2:24pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/email-spacing-and-formatting-issues/140352/7 "2026-04-16T14:24:21Z")
Hi there @dsanchezRW, Thank you for posting to the Community! It looks like this behavior is caused by the email client; however, I was able to locate this [article](https://customer.io/learn/message-composing/forwarded-emails-breaking) that goes over tips on how to prevent emails from breaking when they are forwarded. I hope this helps! Cassie, Community Manager