What about images, links?
Formatted text like bold or underline?
I also prefer plain text, but in most of my emails I talk about technical stuff, or I send transactional emails that require actions, in which case showing buttons is a much better user experience than plain text.
I don't. Plain text is typically formatted for 72-78 monospace characters - even if you don't want formatting, the text will look bad on any device that doesn't match IBM's 80-character punch cards from 1928.
In theory format=flowed solves that, but the same boomers that despise HTML mail also refuse to provide that accommodation, for anyone not behind a teletype.
I used to think this, but lately I'm getting a lot of plain text marketing emails that are clearly LLMs. Now I dislike plain text emails just as much as HTML ones.
What about images, links? Formatted text like bold or underline?
I also prefer plain text, but in most of my emails I talk about technical stuff, or I send transactional emails that require actions, in which case showing buttons is a much better user experience than plain text.
I don’t want buttons in my emails.
But they are a lot easier to see and click (accessibility, larger hit area).
You could have a larger text instead of a button, but changing font size is also HTML and not plain-text anymore.
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> What about images, links? Formatted text like bold or underline?
Easy. Don't.
That's the great bit. You don't have to.
https://useplaintext.email/
Why isn't this website plain text then?
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I don't. Plain text is typically formatted for 72-78 monospace characters - even if you don't want formatting, the text will look bad on any device that doesn't match IBM's 80-character punch cards from 1928.
In theory format=flowed solves that, but the same boomers that despise HTML mail also refuse to provide that accommodation, for anyone not behind a teletype.
I used to think this, but lately I'm getting a lot of plain text marketing emails that are clearly LLMs. Now I dislike plain text emails just as much as HTML ones.
Yeah, the first example on that site doesn't need any formatting. It just says your code is <code>
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Plain text? Pffft.
Human language is an unnecessary abstraction, just like images.
I wish everyone would communicate in pure Binary.