Building an overly fancy HTML mail for a client. Code validates at http://validator.w3.org as XHTML 1.0 Transitional by direct input. Thing is Gmail displays gaps between each of the images.
Each image and its anchor have inline styles setting padding and margin to zero. There is no whitespace between the anchor tag and the enclosed image tag or between subsequent anchor tags. There are no newlines in the code.
Here it is pasted straight out of the received email:
<a href="https://www.threestages.net/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=8D916F3F-E119-4746-A4AB-010F99CE901C&sessionlanguage=&menu_id=007F7A77-97DB-4601-9691-CB7AA4ED7950" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" shape="rect"><img alt="Buy Tickets" border="0" height="55" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa/email/20110203_buy_tickets.jpg" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" width="180"></a><a href="https://www.threestages.net/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=1768A54F-7E43-474A-B18A-4BBF04F14E92" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" shape="rect"><img alt="Three Stages Presents" border="0" height="182" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa/email/20110203_presents.jpg" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" width="180"></a><a href="https://www.threestages.net/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=CE8BDACE-EB4C-4785-BA41-9B9FF6A87D03" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" shape="rect"><img alt="Partners of Three Stages" border="0" height="181" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa/email/20110203_partners.jpg" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" width="180"></a><a href="https://www.threestages.net/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=63DB284F-02DE-4A30-A48C-F03E619E59CA" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" shape="rect"><img alt="Productions of Three Stages" border="0" height="176" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa/email/20110203_productions.jpg" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" width="180"></a><a href="http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/jan/20/hats-off-to-a-chorus-line-the-high-kicking-in-an/" shape="rect"><img alt="The national tour of "A Chorus Line"--opening at Three Stages 2/11--receives a rave review in Ventura. " border="0" height="134" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa//email/20110203_three_bits_1.jpg" width="180"></a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/13/books/13book.html?_r=2" shape="rect"><img alt="Mr. Rosanne Cash’s new memoir" border="0" height="44" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa//email/20110203_three_bits_2.jpg" width="180"></a><a href="http://www.archive.org/details/Insight_080403_a" shape="rect"><img alt="An interview with Jeffrey Siegel on KXJZ's "Insight" (He's the second guest on the show). Originally recorded April, 2008." border="0" height="68" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa//email/20110203_three_bits_3.jpg" width="180"></a><a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/magic-stretches-minds-grins-muscles-of-handicapped-children-in-largo/1148482 " shape="rect"><img alt="Twenty years after his own accident, Kevin Spencer, of Spencers Theatre of Illusion teaches magic to kids—as therapy. " border="0" height="81" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa//email/20110203_three_bits_4.jpg" width="180"></a><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Three-Stages-at-Folsom-Lake-College/169056696438709" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" shape="rect"><img alt="Follow us on Facebook" border="0" height="92" src="https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa/email/20110203_facebook.jpg" style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt;" width="180"></a>
Here is the complete document. https://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~vapa/email/20110203_email.html It's the left column that Gmail is showing gaps on.
Any advice?
The specific answer to your question is that Gmail adds extra space to table cells which only contain an image. To fix this issue add to these images:
style="display:block"
Tip:
Campaign Monitor is a great resource, as is MailChimp. Both provide several guides, template examples, etc.