But when sending HTML e-mail, how can you be sure that the recipient has the same level of control as you do? That is a non-argument. When sending text mail, how can you be sure that the recipient has the same level of control as you do? You can't, which is why you should send e-mail as plain text. It is ridiculous to leave out (standards-compliant) elements of functionality just because you don't like them. These are features of web browsers, not e-mail clients. You cannot assume that the people you send e-mail to are using a web browser as an e-mail client. I believe this has been discussed already. If I was designing my ideal browser, I'd probably drop support for the FONT element and make the U, B and I elements user-toggleable. I'd also leave out support for the COLOR attribute from everything. If, however, I was designing this browser as a commercial product, I'd put in the features that my users are likely to want to use. I would put in useful features that don't compromise compatibility, security and privacy. Then again I am not the one writing Opera, so I am not really in a position to make any such decisions. I am just explaining why HTML e-mail is a bad thing. IE, Netscape, Opera, PocoMail, Excite all render HTML email on receipt; Opera and Excite compose in plain old text only. Only Pocomail does anything with the security problems. See
www.pocomail.com for discussion on security. So worries of posters that HTML email they send won't be received as formatted are bogus. Usually if the receiver has a problem they will let you know.