I found this question: CSS to make HTML page footer stay at bottom of the page with a minimum height, but not overlap the page
But this doesn't solve my problem, because the stone age email clients don't support all of this wizardy.
What is a good way supported cross most (or better all) email clients that pushes the footer to the bottom of the screen if the content isn't long enough?
When I set a min-height on the content the footer will sometimes outside of the screen and above is just a lot of whitespace.
position isn't an option here because thats not really supported and I don't want the footer to overlap my content.
Currently my footer has no fixed height.
As far as I'm aware, you can't. Website techniques require a calculation of the screen height, completed by the CSS method you're using and then distributing that dimension to the main content to allow the footer to sit perfectly at the bottom.
These techniques won't work in all email clients for all of the different screen sizes.
If your content is too short to reach the bottom of a phone screen, that's a bigger concern. I don't understand a full template build for a short message. And setting a height on your content or padding the sections out enough so your footer is a little lower shouldn't be an issue in this day and age.
The fold is so over hyped.