Editing Vector Markup Language (section)

== Microsoft Outlook HTML email rendering==
Though VML is deprecated as a standard in Internet Explorer, it is most commonly used in relation to the development of HTML emails rendered in Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2010, and 2013. The use of background-images in email campaigns requires the use of VML to be displayed in Outlook because Outlook does not support the CSS or HTML attributes for background-images. However using VML for content rather than its intended purpose as an image format comes with a number of accessibility issues.<ref>https://a11y.email/email-accessibility-alert-vml-code-creates-accessibility-errors/ a</ref>

=== Full width table cell background images ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="html">
<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml">
    <head>
        <style>
            v:* { behavior: url(#default#VML); display: inline-block; }
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
    <table width="100%" height="20">
        <tr>
            <td bgcolor="#dddddd" style="background-image:url('http://placekitten.com/g/500/300');background-repeat:no-repeat;background-position:center;" background="http://placekitten.com/g/500/300" width="100%" height="300">
            <!--[if gte mso 9]>
            <v:rect xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" fill="true" stroke="false" style="mso-width-percent:1000;height:300px;">
                <v:fill type="frame" src="http://placekitten.com/g/500/300" color="#ffffff" />
            </v:rect>
            <![endif]-->
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>
</syntaxhighlight>

=== Specified width table cell background images ===
<syntaxhighlight lang="html">
<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml">
    <head>
        <style>
            v:* { behavior: url(#default#VML); display: inline-block; }
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
    <table width="600" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;">
        <tr>
            <td style="width: 300px; height: 80px; background-image: url('http://placekitten.com/g/300/80');">
            <!--[if gte mso 9]>
            <v:image xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" id="theImage" style='behavior: url(#default#VML); display: inline-block; position: absolute; width: 300px; height: 80px; top: 0; left: 0; border: 0; z-index: 1;' src="http://placekitten.com/g/300/80" />
                <v:shape xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" id="theText" style='behavior: url(#default#VML); display: inline-block; position: absolute; width: 300px; height: 80px; top: -5; left: -10; border: 0; z-index: 2;'>
                <div>
             <![endif]-->
             <table width="300" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;">
                 <tr>
                     <td height="80" align="center" valign="top" style="color:#ffffff;font-size:20px;"><span>Text</span></td>
                 </tr>
             </table>
             <!--[if gte mso 9]>
                 </div>
                 </v:shape>
             <![endif]-->
             </td>
         </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>
</syntaxhighlight>