Please: ASCII-Formatted E-Mail Only

ASCII E-Mail Only

Please do not send me E-mail messages that are HTML-formatted. Think! The information you wish to convey should be expressed in well-written sentences with correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax. You do not really need colored, strange fonts. You do not need bold and Italics. Does the graphic you wish to embed really provide information? Or is it merely decoration?

Why HTML formatted e-mail is best avoided

In general, HTML formatted e-mail is a nuisance. Normally, the effect of using HTML is that your message may appear strange or hardly legible at the recipients screen, because different e-mail clients handle HTML differently (and everybody doesn't use Micro$ofts e-mail software). One of the most annoying aspects of HTML messages is that they sometimes include graphics or sounds linked from the web, causing your dial-up networking connection to be activated and your modem to start dialing. There are other ways of irritating the receivers of your e-mail than sending it HTML coded, but few are more efficient.

Parting with some of the capabilities of HTML, like the ability to insert animated graphics of smiling faces, might actually be quite beneficial for some. Without them, they may just have to rediscover the art of writing in order to convey their thoughts.

by Jörn Rönnow (used with permission)

There are some very good reasons to avoid HTML-formatted messages:

An HTML message is actually about 3-5 times larger than an ASCII message with the same amount of text.

An HTML message takes 3-5 times longer to download than the same information in an ASCII message.
An HTML message takes 3-5 times longer to pass through my anti-virus scanner, even with a broadband connection.
If I keep your HTML message, it occupies 3-5 times as much disc space as the same content in an ASCII message.
Many U.S. corporations must now archive all their E-mail — internal, incoming, and outgoing — because of federal laws enacted as a result of the major corporate frauds that occurred in the beginning of the 21st century. They want ASCII-formatted messages in order to limit their investment in archiving media.

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I researched both "bloat" and HTML errors in HTML-formatted messages. My results are presented in my ASCII vs HTML E-Mail: Sizes and Errors.
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Some E-mail services limit the size of a user's inbox. When that limit is reached, either further incoming messages are blocked or else the user must pay for additional inbox space. Because of bloat, HTML-formatted messages will more quickly fill an inbox than will ASCII-formatted messages.
Some ISPs (e.g., AT&T, Comcast) now limit the total bytes a user can download, levying extra charges on bytes beyond the allowed limit or even blocking further downloads. While bloated HTML-formatted E-mail messages are unlikely to cause a recipient to reach that limit, they will cause problems for recipients who are already near ot at that limit.

Many E-mail applications generate invalid HTML that does not comply with the W3C HTML specification. I know. I have taken HTML-formatted messages and processed them with the W3C HTML validator. If your E-mail application is different from mine, mine might not be able to display your message properly. Even if I can display your message, the result may be garbled if I try to quote your message in a reply to you or in a forwarded message to someone else.

Further, messages formatted in non-compliant HTML generally cannot be "read" by audio E-mail applications used by the blind. It might be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for a business or government agency to send such HTML-formatted messages, resulting in a costly lawsuit.

Contrary to popular belief, much of the added content in an HTML-formatted message — especially graphics and background images — are attachments and not "inline". Only when the Internet packets arrive at your E-mail application, are images merged back into the HTML. To protect me from viruses, however, I have set my E-mail application to prevent it from opening or using any attachment. (Yes, JPEG, GIF, BMP, and PNG image files have been known to contain serious malware.) As a result, your HTML-formatted message displays with "broken image" icons

instead of your intended images.

Some spam filters treat HTML-formatted messages as more likely to be spam. Of course, HTML formatting is not the only criterion; but when added to certain words in the message text — words that might be quite innocent — HTML formatting might be enough to make a filter reject your message. Your message might not reach its intended addressee.

Some Web E-mail applications have options to render all messages in plain text, as if they were ASCII-formatted. Many users select that option, in which case any effort to create HTML-formatted messages is wasted.

Plain ASCII text cannot contain a computer virus. An HTML-formatted message, however, can contain scripts that either are viruses themselves or fetch viruses from the Internet.

Reading HTML-formatted E-mail can result in a Web bug being downloaded into your computer.

A web bug is an object that is embedded in a web page or e-mail and is usually invisible to the user but allows checking that a user has viewed the page or e-mail.

A Web bug might thus be considered similar to a computer virus. At the least, a Web bug violates your privacy. If the E-mail was spam, the sender will know not only that you actually opened the message but also how often, thus subjecting you to an increased volume of spam. HTML-formatted E-mail rendered in plain text defeats most (but not necessarily all) Web bugs but — as noted above — also defeats the HTML formatting. ASCII-formatted E-mail might contain Web bugs as attachments, but those Web bugs are not enabled unless you actually attempt to open the attachments.

Most E-mail applications have options to use ASCII-formatting. Some even have options to use ASCII-formatting automatically for selected addresses. There is no good reason why you cannot comply with my request.

No, Rönnow and I are not alone in our rejection of HTML formatting for E-mail.

Plain text is for email; HTML is for web pages

From someone else's message signature

ASCII E-Mail Only

Copyright © 2008-2011 by David E. Ross

Why HTML formatted e-mail is best avoided