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--- html-mail-vs-plain-text [2018-06-28 21:25] – + Hanno Böck: [Efail: HTML Mails have no Security Concept and are to blame] andreas
+++ html-mail-vs-plain-text [2019-12-09 12:15] (current) – minor clarification andreas
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+<markdown>
+Notes on Plain Text vs. HTML Mail
+=================================
+## Contra HTML mail
+* Ecologically expensive due to increased size of messages
+* High complexity
+  * Harder to develop, hence more expensive
+  * Handling more likely to break (e.g.
+    [Kaputte Zitate im Plain-Text von Gmail])
+  * Less transparent; errors are harder to debug (for users _and_ developers)
+  * Higher hurdle for first time users (e.g. for composing newsletters)
+* Security hazards (cf. security bug fixes of main mail programs such
+  as [Security Advisories for Thunderbird]; cf. [Efail: HTML Mails have no Security Concept and are to blame])
+* Privacy hazards (e.g. HTML is used to track users)
+* Some automated systems (e.g. mailing lists) do not accept HTML and will
+  reject messages, or use only the alternative plain text part, or convert
+  the HTML potentially causing formatting issues.
+* Requires HTML aware software
+* Double effort (HTML _and_ text need to be formatted and checked)
+* Little guarantee that HTML will be shown as intended
+* More distractions when writing (e.g. font selectors, emoji buttons)
+* Harder to write (formatting takes more time)
+* "[Angry fruit salad]": Every user chooses a different font in a different
+  color and different size.
+## Pro HTML mail
+* Ability to format and style the message content
+* Ability to create "rich" content (graphs, tables, ...)
+* Ability to use semantic markup (e.g. to mark text as preformatted)
+## Contra plain text mail
+* Text wrapping issues if lines are hard-wrapped (not format=flowed)
+  (e.g. on mobile devices with small screens)
+* Text formatted for fixed width fonts might get distorted
+* Some content is better sent as attachment (e.g. illustrations)
+## Pro plain text mail
+* Easy, small, ecologically friendly (compared to HTML mail)
+* Text is shown by all devices and programs
+* Accessibility as good as it gets
+## Criteria to consider
+* False positive spam: It is unclear whether HTML mails are more likely to be falsely categorized as spam.
+* Accessibility: It is unclear whether HTML mails that include alternative plain text parts are less accessible, for instance for text to speech conversion.
+## References
+* Wikipedia:
+  [HTML email](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML_email "Accessed 2017-10-11")
+* Hanno Böck: [Efail: HTML Mails have no Security Concept and are to blame]
+* Jason Rodriguez: [HTML Email and Accessibility | CSS-Tricks](https://css-tricks.com/html-email-accessibility/ "Accessed 2017-11-22") Recommended, extensive article published 2017-11-22.
+* LUGA.at thread "Plain Text vs. HTML-Mails"
+  [October](http://www.luga.at/mailing-lists/luga/2017/10/threads.html#00041 "Accessed 2017-11-05") +
+  [November](http://www.luga.at/mailing-lists/luga/2017/11/threads.html#00003 "Accessed 2017-11-05") 2017.
+* Niti Shah (HubSpot Marketing):
+  [Plain Text vs. HTML Emails: Which Is Better? [New Data]](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/plain-text-vs-html-emails-data "Accessed 2017-10-29")
+  Originally published 2015-07-27, updated 2017-10-29.
+* Jonathan Corbet (LWN.net):
+  [The trouble with text-only email](https://lwn.net/Articles/735973/ "Accessed 2017-11-04")
+  Published 2017-10-12. With many interesting [comments](https://lwn.net/Articles/735973/#Comments)
+* Bratus S, Shubina A:
+  [The only safe email is text-only email](https://theconversation.com/the-only-safe-email-is-text-only-email-81434 "Accessed 2017-10-29").
+  The Conversation, 2017-09-11. Also available from
+  [Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-only-safe-e-mail-is-text-only-e-mail/ "Accessed 2017-10-29").
+* mkln.org:
+  [Wie man E-Mails schreibt](https://mkln.org/2007/02/wie-man-emails-schreibt/ "Accessed 2017-11-04")
+  Published 2017-02-24.
+* Greg Kogan:
+  [Don't Design Your Emails](https://www.gkogan.co/blog/dont-design-emails/ "Accessed 2017-11-04")
+  Published 2016-06-28.
+* AWeber Email Marketing:
+  [Plain Text vs HTML Email: What Reaches the Inbox in 2014?](https://blog.aweber.com/email-marketing/plain-text-vs-html-email-2014.htm "Accessed 2017-10-11")
+  Published 2014-04-22.
+* For historical reference:
+  * [Discussion about HTML in e-mail](https://people.dsv.su.se/~jpalme/ietf/mhtml-discussion.html "Accessed 2017-10-11")
+    Last revision 1998-05-22.
+  * [The Ascii Ribbon Campaign official homepage](http://www.asciiribbon.org/ "Accessed 2018-06-28")
+    from around 2000 or even earlier
+[Kaputte Zitate im Plain-Text von Gmail]: http://www.luga.at/mailing-lists/luga/2017/10/msg00005.html "Accessed 2017-10-11"
+[Security Advisories for Thunderbird]: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/known-vulnerabilities/thunderbird/  "Accessed 2017-10-11"
+[Angry fruit salad]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/angry_fruit_salad "Accessed 2017-11-04"
+[Efail: HTML Mails have no Security Concept and are to blame]: https://blog.hboeck.de/archives/894-Efail-HTML-Mails-have-no-Security-Concept-and-are-to-blame.html "Published 2018-06-27, accessed 2018-06-28"
+</markdown>

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