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HTML Mails

Why HTML mails should be sent upon consultation only

Many email programs and web mail services are preconfigured to send everything formatted in HTML, sometimes also called "rich text." This allows colours, different fonts and also inserting images in the middle of the text. But:

Not all recipients can read HTML-formatted emails. This is especially true for mobile users, but also for many others. For instance, if you send an email to a vessel which receives mails via satellite using an Inmarsat terminal, then this will work with plain text only.
Often HTML mails are sent even though the unformatted text does not require it. The mail volume increases by a factor of 3 to 4 and thus causes higher transfer cost for mobile or modem users who have to pay per data volume or time.
The quality of HTML code created by email programs is often extremely poor because - in contrary to the web - there is no real standard for it. The effect is that different clients display such emails in a different way and often not as intended.
HTML mails are often abused by newsletter senders and spammers to verify your email address. For this purpose a reference to an on-line image is placed in the HTML code. The image address (URL) includes a special code which is unique for each recipient. Using the server log, the sender can easily check who has when displayed the mail. This is also why many mail servers treat HTML mails with a higher spam score than plain-text mails.
These verified email addresses are then often offered via direct-marketing companies since they are more valuable than non-verified addresses. Furthermore, the sender can see which operating system and which email program a recipient is using. In some cases this information might be even abused for preparing a virus or trojan attack.
HTML mails can come with embedded Javascript code. The Javascript program is executed on the recipient's PC. Known security holes of the mail program or the operating system could be used to access local files, to infect them, or to send information about them to a remote server. Since anti-virus programs are able to identify a fraction of all malware, their usage is not sufficient.

Therefore many security-aware users have either disabled the reception of HTML emails completely or add a spam score to them. For this reason, some email clients and web mail services create mails which contain two alternative formats, plain text and HTML, so that the plain text can still be read even if the recipient does not allow HTML.

However, if an email is sent without a plain-text alternative, security-aware users are more or less forced to block the mail completely or to delete it, respectively. Often, though not always, the sender will then receive a bounce mail with an error message like "HTML mails are blocked", saying that the delivery failed.

So send HTML emails only after this has been fixed explicitly with the recipient. Of course the same is also true for mails with proprietary attachment files which require that the recipient has installed a specific program like Word, PowerPoint or Excel, which cannot be assumed automatically.

How to send a screen copy with a plain-text email

Many users create HTML mails only because they do not know how to send a screen copy with a plain-text email. But this is really an easy job in Windows and can be done in only three small steps.

Press the "Print" key to copy the screen content to the clip board. Alternatively, use ALT+Print to copy the active window only.
Open your favourite graphics program (not a text program like Word!) and insert the clip board into a new image.
Save the image as a file (use GIF, PNG or JPG, not uncompressed BMP) and add it to your email as an attachment. If your graphics program has a menu item "Send" this makes it even easier.

Last, but not least: Do not forget to set the default email format to "plain text" in your mail client. Sometimes it is also possible to configure HTML as alternative format for selected recipients in the address book if really required.