Simple responsive HTML email template | Hacker News Reader

Simple responsive HTML email template

github.com

70 pointsfonziguy14 comments

Also check Antwort, similar but seems to have better documentation and has been thoroughly tested: http://internations.github.io/antwort/

Antwort seems more trustworthy. Making HTML emails look good on all devices and apps is a real problem. If you view the source of a HTML mail you see crazy stuff. It feels a lot like the nineties with all that table tags.

Tables are usually used because /some/Outlook/s clients do not respect div width.

Was just dealing with this... Outlook doesn't implement float either. Or maybe because of the width thing it doesn't seem to.

I don't think it supports floats at all.

The strange thing is that Outlook 2000 and 2003 did, because they used IE's rendering engine. But then with Outlook 2007, they switched to Word's engine for "security reasons" but haven't added some of even the most basic modern HTML features to it over the last five years...

The Ink Framework from Zurb has also got plenty of free templates that are thoroughly tested and responsive:

http://zurb.com/ink/

In what way is this responsive? At least the example isnt.

It's not even a usable template. Of course everyone can do a 100% table. Use Zurb ink.

Ah yes, the old tables are bad because... um... well... we said they're bad. Nevermind that they visually work, and HTML email never progressed beyond 1997. They're bad!

And I'm not trying to reignite the "tables are bad" hoopla. I get that tables are for tabular data. They make the most sense and are very good at it. However tables still effortlessly accomplish things that take a mountain of "hacks" and workarounds with other elements, like percentile heights and widths, in conjunction with centering content inside of cells horizontally and vertically, as well as gutters via cell padding and margins.

If this is not the elegant or desired solution, then we as a community need to make a concentrated effort to get HTML email up to spec. It's clearly here to stay, and not some passing fad like was bemoaned at the introduction of richly formatted emails. Unfortunately here to stay has also meant we've been stuck with what we shipped.

Until that day that we finally fix this, I'm erring to the side of tables in emails for greater functionality and compatibility.

> [..]and HTML email never progressed beyond 1997.

Thank christian God, Allah, Osiris and Buddha all at the same time.

Something more horrible than HTML emails would be HTML emails with jquery and more useless stuff.

Err I think you badly misread that... jarnix didn't say tables are bad, just that 100% width tables are easy to implement yourself. Zurb Ink uses tables too.

Well then perhaps one should explain their stance better. This drive by "bah. X sucks, use Y" is the slow heat death of well reasoned and informed debate and discussion.

Ugh. HTML e-mail is awful. My MUA doesn't need to be a browser as well.

I came here expecting this comment and I'm bored and disappointed to find placed so highly.

I send html emails. Not always but quite often I'm emailing people where this won't communicate the same making the text italic or bold.

Or I'm sending a code fragment and I want it indented and renderedin a monospace font.

Or I want to embed an image, or I want to linkify some text.

Can we stop having this debate? It's a was a battle lost a long time ago and the cost has been largely worth the benefits.

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