HTML Emails Done Right

There is probably nothing as painful in the world of web development as crafting html emails.

Between inline css, text versions, and a myriad of email clients (all with different standards) coding a HTML email can be a Sisyphean task.

I have found a couple very useful tools/resources that have come in handy when creating these emails.

This article is a great overview of html best practices:

http://24ways.org/2009/rock-solid-html-emails/

Premailer is a great tool. It converts an embedded stylesheet to inline styles, as well as generates a text-only email. Not to mention it runs the code through email client compatibility testing, and gives css recommendations/warnings for each.

http://premailer.dialect.ca/

Mailchimp is a great tool for sending emails, and offer testing that provides screenshots of the email you are about to send. This is very helpful particularly because sometimes following standards/recommendations doesn't = a well put together email.

http://mailchimp.com/