Flickr Photo: Mick OFor a long time, there was a great debate in the nptech community that divided us into two distinct camps. The discussions were fierce, the arguments occasionally heated. We were battling for the future of email, and the question was:

Text or HTML?

These days, any e-marketer will tell you that HTML tends to outperform text across the board (though you're still obligated to provide a text version for those who haven't crossed over to the dark side). The problem is, designing HTML emails is a total pain in the, well, I'll go with neck. This is a family blog.

Unfortunately, the explosion of email clients, and more importantly, their myriad ways of handling HTML and CSS code, means that it's nearly impossible to design an HTML email that will render the same in every client. Figuring out what worked where was basically guesswork.

Well, guess no more!