Several email clients -- from AOL to Windows Live Beta -- disable images by default. Users can change their settings and turn images back on, if they are savvy and motivated enough to figure out how, and if they are not using Gmail, which always blocks images.

Therefore, it's safe to assume that your graphics will not be seen by a sizable chunk of your audience. Everything that's important should exist in text as well as pictures.

Here's what should be spelled out, literally: your brand, your headline, your call to action and perhaps, most importantly, links to your landing pages.

Gone are the mastheads that embed your headline and key call to action within the picture itself. Gone are the "Shop Now" navigation buttons with no text-based equivalent. Gone -- as in really, really far gone -- are the single large images that used to make up your entire email.

You can still use graphics. Just make them smaller and more self-contained, and repeat anything you show in the picture in your copy. You can also use HTML background colors, font colors, font tags and font sizes to give you a designed look without the blocked-image headache.

Get the picture?

Easy on the eyes … and light on the images