Graphics tend to be more visually appealing than HTML text (even when formatted with bolding, colors, etc.), so it's no wonder many graphic designers like to deliver major law firm announcements via email using a single, large, snazzy graphic. We don't recommended it.
As many people know, image blocking is prevalent nowadays with email applications. So until recipients with image blocking on, actually display your graphic, all they see is one big red "X". You can alleviate this issue somewhat by populating the ALT tag with descriptive text so that recipients with blocking on will see your description of the image over the blocked image. If they know the sender, and are enticed by the description, the chances are better they'll display images and see your graphic.
But there's another issue not many people are aware of. And that is that a low text-to-image ratio is a trigger on SpamAssassin to increase your score. In other words, if your email consists of a single large image, and no text, your Spam Assassin score will be higher (because your text-to-image ratio is virtually zero), and your risk of being filtered much greater. See the SpamAssassin test list and search for "HTML has a low ratio of text to image area." A higher score on SpamAssassin is something to be concerned about since SpamAssassin is one of the most widely used content filters.
Instead, a better approach is to limit use of graphics for important visuals related to the announcement, like attorney or office photos, firm logos, banner, etc. But render the text part of the message using HTML text. And put that text close to the top of the email and to the left. This way folks with image blocking on who scan emails in their preview panes can immediately read your announcement, which will make it even more likely that they'll display the images included with the message.
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