What Is the Plain-Text Version of an Email?
Understanding plain-text emails and their importance
Table of Contents
What Is the Plain-Text Version of an Email?
The plain-text version of an email is the text-only content without HTML formatting, images, colors, fonts, or styling. It contains only readable text characters and is sent alongside HTML versions in multipart emails.
Plain-text emails are essential for accessibility, email client compatibility, spam filtering, and users who prefer or require text-only emails. They provide a fallback when HTML rendering fails and ensure all recipients can read email content regardless of their email client capabilities.
Extract plain text from emails using our extract email text tool to analyze text content and ensure proper plain-text versions are included in your emails.
Plain-Text vs HTML
Plain-Text Emails
- Text-only content
- No formatting, colors, or images
- Universal compatibility
- Faster loading
- Better for accessibility
- Smaller file size
HTML Emails
- Rich formatting and styling
- Images, colors, fonts
- Better visual presentation
- May not render in all clients
- Larger file size
- Requires HTML support
Best Practice: Both Versions
Send multipart emails with both HTML and plain-text versions. Email clients choose which version to display based on their capabilities and user preferences.
Why Plain-Text Is Important
1. Accessibility
Plain-text emails are accessible to screen readers and assistive technologies, ensuring all users can read email content.
2. Email Client Compatibility
Some email clients don't support HTML or have HTML disabled. Plain-text ensures these clients can still display email content.
3. Spam Filtering
Emails without plain-text versions may be filtered as spam. Including plain-text improves deliverability and spam scores.
4. User Preferences
Many users prefer plain-text emails for faster loading, better readability, and security reasons.
5. Fallback Option
When HTML rendering fails or is blocked, plain-text provides a reliable fallback to ensure message delivery.
6. Mobile Compatibility
Plain-text emails load faster on mobile devices and work reliably across all mobile email clients.
Multipart Emails
Multipart emails contain both HTML and plain-text versions, allowing email clients to choose the appropriate version:
Structure
- HTML part: Rich formatted content
- Plain-text part: Text-only content
- MIME boundaries: Separate the parts
Client Selection
Email clients automatically select which version to display based on:
- Client HTML support
- User preferences
- Security settings
- Rendering capabilities
Content Matching
Plain-text and HTML versions should contain the same information, ensuring consistent message delivery regardless of which version is displayed.
Extracting Plain Text
Extracting plain text from emails is useful for analysis, troubleshooting, and ensuring proper plain-text versions:
Why Extract Plain Text
- Analyze text content
- Verify plain-text versions
- Troubleshoot rendering issues
- Check content quality
- Ensure accessibility
Extraction Methods
Use our extract email text tool to extract plain text from email files (.eml, .msg) or email source code.
Best Practices
- Always include plain-text versions
- Match HTML and plain-text content
- Keep plain-text readable and well-formatted
- Include all important information in plain text
- Test plain-text rendering
