The Email Standards Project is about working with email client developers and the design community to improve web standards support and accessibility in email. The project was formed out of frustration with the inconsistent rendering of HTML emails in major email clients.
A useful resource when you're wondering why something is showing up like crap in your html email designs.
I bookmarked this many moons ago, but only found it slightly useful on the ground really (though the idea and the motivation were brilliant and have my full support)
Something like this css support comparison on campaign monitor is more useful on the fly:
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/
just used it the other day .... they sure know how to attract you to their site those Campaign Monitor folk
Posted by: ChrisFizik | November 10, 2008 at 10:55 PM
It's just that simple: Leave HTML and other rich formats to the web and use plain text in eMails.
Posted by: Fabian | November 11, 2008 at 04:49 PM
Fabian,
Unfortunately its not that simple. Modern marketing campaigns almost require the use of images and more complex layouts. The simple fact is that those things improve the conversion rate of a campaign, especially if you are dealing with products that have a visual appeal, such as clothes.
Plain text just doesn't grab like a well-designed email.
Posted by: Adam | November 12, 2008 at 12:25 AM
Thanks for the mention of the Email Standards Project. We're still working hard on it, and there is encouraging signs from some quarters for improvements in the future.
Just so people are aware, Campaign Monitor is the driving force behind the Email Standards Project too!
Mathew.
Posted by: Mathew Patterson | November 12, 2008 at 05:12 PM