Use Plain Text Email

Summary

Use plain text email There are two main types of emails on the internet: plain text and HTML. Many people, particularly in technical communities, strongly prefer or even require the use of plain text email from participants. However, your mail client may not have it set up by default. We'll help you get it configured, and introduce you to the norms and conventions of plain text email. Table of Contents Recommended email clients for plain text users How to set up plain text with other email clients Etiquette recommendations for plain text emails Why is plain text better than HTML? Recommendations for software which sends emails How to improve these recommendations This guide is brought to you by sourcehut, the "hacker's forge" for software development, a platform which utilizes plain text emails for many features. 100% free software and no JavaScript required - try it today! The following email clients are known to handle plain text especially well: These clients all compose plain text emails by default, with correct quoting and text wrapping settings, requiring no additional configuration to use correctly. Want to add your own mail client to this list? If your email provider's webmail doesn't have good plain text support, please consider writing to <postmaster@yourdomain.com> with a complaint, and using one of the recommended clients over IMAP & SMTP instead. Jump to: After configuring your client, be sure to review our etiquette recommendations. Afterlogic Compose in plain text Wraps text or format=flowed Supports bottom posting Afterlogic does not support plain text email. Please ask them for it and use a different mail client. alot Compose in plain text Wraps text or format=flowed Supports bottom posting alot uses plain text email by default. Apple Mail Compose in plain text Wraps text or format=flowed Supports bottom posting Select Mail → Preferences from the menu Visit the "Composing" category Change the "Message Format" (or "Format") option to "Plain Text" Cyp...