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For broad compatibility, send both representations in a MIME multipart/alternative message. Put the text/plain part first and the text/html part last, and keep their substantive meaning equivalent.
HTML email and plain-text email compared
| Question | Plain text | HTML |
|---|---|---|
| What is in the body? | Characters and line breaks, with no formatting commands, font specifications or content markup. | Markup that can describe formatted text, headings, lists, links, colors, fonts and pictures. |
| How does it look? | The recipient’s mail program displays the text as text. | The mail program interprets the markup, but the final appearance depends on its capabilities and settings. |
| Can it show images in the message? | Not as embedded visual content; an image can be described with text or supplied separately. | Yes, an HTML part can reference or include pictures, subject to client settings and image handling. |
| Best fit | Short, direct messages that do not need visual structure. | Messages that benefit from hierarchy, descriptive links, formatted lists or meaningful imagery. |
RFC 2046 defines text/plain as text without formatting commands or markup. Microsoft’s Outlook guidance describes HTML as supporting fonts, colors, lists and pictures, while warning that the recipient’s email program controls how the message appears.
What plain-text email actually means
A plain-text message contains readable characters and line breaks, not instructions for changing typeface, color, spacing or layout. A sender can still organize it with short paragraphs, labels and simple text conventions such as hyphens or numbered lines, but those conventions remain characters rather than formatting instructions.
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Plain text is therefore predictable at the content level: a client does not need to interpret HTML to show the words. That does not guarantee identical presentation everywhere. Line wrapping, proportional versus fixed-width fonts, quoting and other display choices remain under the recipient’s control.
What HTML email adds
HTML lets the author express relationships in the content. A heading can introduce a section, a list can group steps, a link can have descriptive text, and an image can reinforce the message. These capabilities are useful for newsletters, transactional notices with structured details and messages where visual hierarchy helps readers scan.
HTML is not a promise of a particular design. Outlook and other clients may support different subsets of HTML and CSS, suppress external images, apply user preferences or present a simplified view. Microsoft explicitly notes that appearance depends on the recipient’s email program and settings. Treat the markup as a request that each client may render differently, not as a pixel-perfect canvas.
How multipart/alternative delivers both versions
MIME allows one email to carry alternate representations of the same information. With multipart/alternative, the message contains a plain-text part and an HTML part. RFC 2046 says composing agents should order parts from least elaborate to most elaborate, with the preferred or richest representation last. A capable client displays the last representation it can handle.
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--msg-boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Your invoice is ready.
View it at https://example.com/invoice/123.
--msg-boundary
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
<p>Your invoice is ready.</p>
<p><a href="https://example.com/invoice/123">View your invoice</a>.</p>
--msg-boundary--The two parts should communicate the same substantive message. Do not put an important warning, deadline or action only in HTML. RFC 9787, published in August 2025, discusses multipart rendering where client capabilities and configuration can be uncertain; semantic equivalence protects readers when a client chooses a different part than you expected.
How to choose a format
Choose HTML when structure improves comprehension
- The message has headings, several sections or a sequence of steps.
- Descriptive link text is clearer than displaying long URLs.
- Brand colors or typography help users identify the message, without carrying essential meaning alone.
- A meaningful image adds information and you can provide an equivalent text alternative.
Choose plain text when the message is inherently straightforward
- The content is a short personal note, alert or command that needs no visual hierarchy.
- Recipients may use text-oriented tools or have HTML disabled.
- You want the smallest, simplest representation and do not need in-message imagery.
For mixed audiences, send both
A multipart message lets each recipient’s software use the representation it can render. Maintain one source of truth for the wording, then produce a readable plain-text version and an HTML version with equivalent information. Put plain text before HTML in the MIME body.
Accessibility: format alone is not the answer
Plain text is not automatically accessible, and HTML is not automatically inaccessible. Accessibility depends on the content and implementation. Official guidance from Section508.gov and Microsoft emphasizes understandable structure, legible presentation and equivalent text for meaningful images.
- Keep the wording and order of important information consistent between parts.
- Give every meaningful image an equivalent text alternative. If an image is decorative, do not make readers depend on it to understand the message.
- Use descriptive link text so the destination or action is clear without surrounding visual cues.
- Ensure attachments are accessible or provide an accessible alternate version.
- Do not encode essential instructions only through color, typography or an image.
- Check the result with the mail clients and settings your audience actually uses.
An HTML layout with clear headings and descriptive links can be easier to navigate than a dense block of plain text. Conversely, a badly structured HTML message can be harder to use than a well-written text version. Judge the finished content, not the label of the format.
Does plain text deliver better than HTML?
There is no universal deliverability advantage established by the authoritative material for this comparison. The cited standards and guidance explain how formats are represented, rendered and made accessible; they do not provide a controlled statistic showing that plain text consistently reaches inboxes more successfully than HTML.
Do not promise better inbox placement solely because a message is plain text. Sender reputation, authentication, list quality, recipient engagement, content and filtering policies are separate considerations. Providing an equivalent plain-text part is a compatibility and accessibility practice, not a guaranteed deliverability tactic.
A practical workflow for sending reliable email
- Write the complete message first. Identify the action, dates, amounts and warnings that every recipient must receive.
- Create the plain-text representation. Use short paragraphs, meaningful labels and readable URLs. Preserve the same facts and calls to action.
- Create the HTML representation. Add headings, lists, descriptive links and images only where they improve understanding. Supply text alternatives for meaningful images.
- Build the MIME message. Set
Content-Type: multipart/alternative, placetext/plainfirst andtext/htmllast, and use a unique boundary. - Review both parts independently. Confirm that no deadline, link, attachment instruction or warning exists in only one representation.
- Check client behavior. Test the clients and user settings relevant to your audience, including cases where images are blocked or HTML is disabled.
Troubleshooting common problems
The recipient sees raw HTML tags
Cause: The message was labeled or transmitted as text/plain even though it contains HTML, or the MIME boundaries are malformed.
Fix: Put the markup in a part labeled text/html, verify the boundary lines and ensure the closing boundary is present.
The recipient sees only plain text
Cause: The client cannot render HTML, the user disabled HTML, or the message contains no valid HTML part.
Fix: Treat this as an expected fallback. Make the text part complete, then verify that the HTML part is ordered last and has a valid Content-Type.
The HTML layout changes between clients
Cause: Email programs support different HTML and CSS features and apply different settings.
Fix: Simplify the structure, keep essential meaning in text, provide a complete plain-text part and test with the clients used by your recipients. Do not depend on one exact visual rendering.
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An important image is missing
Cause: The client blocked images, the image reference is unreachable or the message relies on the image without an equivalent description.
Fix: Add equivalent text, verify the image reference and ensure the surrounding copy still explains the action or information.
The two versions disagree
Cause: One representation was edited without updating the other.
Fix: Compare the parts line by line for names, dates, amounts, links, warnings and calls to action before sending.
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Need a screenshot of a hosted email preview?
If you publish an HTML email preview on a web page and need a clean image of that page for documentation or review, ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API. It accepts a URL and returns PNG, JPEG, WebP or PDF output. Before capture it can accept cookie banners and remove more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups and chat widgets. Bot checks, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads and cache hits are not billed, and response headers identify the page verdict and billing result.
For a public preview URL, one request is enough:
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.com/email-preview -o shot.webpPython:
import requests
r = requests.get('https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot', params={'access_key': 'YOUR_API_KEY', 'url': 'https://example.com/email-preview'}, timeout=90)
open('shot.webp', 'wb').write(r.content)Node.js:
const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://example.com/email-preview' });
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can a recipient force an HTML message to display as plain text?
Often, yes. Many email programs and user settings can disable HTML or choose a text view. That is why the plain-text part should contain the complete message.
Should the HTML and plain-text parts use exactly the same line breaks?
No. They should carry the same substantive information, but each representation can use the structure that is readable in its own format.
Is an image-only HTML email equivalent to sending both formats?
No. An image-only design can hide essential information from recipients who block images or use text views. Provide meaningful text in both representations.
The Bottom Line
HTML email adds structure and visual presentation; plain text supplies a simpler representation without markup. Send both as multipart/alternative when audiences and clients vary, keep the meaning synchronized, and build accessibility into the content rather than assuming one format is automatically superior.
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