send an email with picture/rich text format in the body

[anya]

Hey,
I have a certain problem and till now I didnt find an answer on the
web.

I want to send an email message with picture in it. I dont want to put
it as
attachment but make it in the body of the mail, so every one who open
the email will see the picture.. (it is possible that the solution will
be in any other format that will be opened i.e pdf, doc and I will put
this in the body )

Neither in MimeWriter nor using the definition of MymeTypes I was able
to do it ..

Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks

 

[Ben Finney]

I want to send an email message with picture in it.

Please, reconsider. Email is a text medium.

I dont want to put it as attachment but make it in the body of the
mail, so every one who open the email will see the picture..

No, they won't; my email client displays only text, and that's the
case for a great many people on the net.

Does anyone have a solution?

If you want people to view something other than text, email is not
what you want. Give a URL to the place where they can view what you
want them to see; then they can choose a time when they are using a
graphically capable terminal.

 

[Astan Chee]

what about sending the mail as html instead of normal plain/text ?

 

[Heiko Wundram]

Am Sonntag 14 Mai 2006 13:24 schrieb anya:

I want to send an email message with picture in it.
This...

I dont want to put
it as
attachment but make it in the body of the mail, so every one who open
the email will see the picture..
will...

(it is possible that the solution will
be in any other format that will be opened i.e pdf, doc and I will put
this in the body )
never...

Neither in MimeWriter nor using the definition of MymeTypes I was able
to do it ..

work.

That is, unless you design your own MIME standard, and get all email clients
out there to read your type of "structured document," which you inherently
need for including pictures directly in an email (body), as MIME (as we know
it today) only knows about stacked message parts, not about message content
and higher level formatting.

Basically, to include a picture in a body today, there's concensus that you
insert a HTML-document into one MIME part, and an <img> link refers to the
attachment that comes in another MIME part (by the filename, which is the
same as for the attached MIME part). But, as you see, this specifically
requires that the recipient is able to view HTML mails (which quite a lot of
people, even those using M$ Outlook, have turned off by default).

Anyway, read Ben Finney's response carefully. If you're trying to send out
commercial email, I'll be the first person to dump your mail if it doesn't at
least come in a format I can read (and understand!) text-only.

--- Heiko.

 

[Miki]

Hello Anya,

See http://docs.python.org/lib/node597.html
IMO if you'll place the picture as 1'st MutliMime part the *some* email
readers will show it like you want.

HTH,
Miki

 

[Ben Finney]

See http://docs.python.org/lib/node597.html
IMO if you'll place the picture as 1'st MutliMime part the *some* email
readers will show it like you want.

And most good spam filters will recognise it for the junk that it is,
and flag it appropriately. Messages that contain little plain text get
flagged as likely spam.

If there's useful information for the recipient to see in an email,
put it in as text. If you want to distribute files, put them online
for fetching -- and then feel free to send an email containing the URL
to the people who want those files, so they can get them at an
appropriate time, with appropriate tools.

 

[Ten]

Hey,
I have a certain problem and till now I didnt find an answer on the
web.

I want to send an email message with picture in it. I dont want to put
it as
attachment but make it in the body of the mail, so every one who open
the email will see the picture.. (it is possible that the solution will
be in any other format that will be opened i.e pdf, doc and I will put
this in the body )

Neither in MimeWriter nor using the definition of MymeTypes I was able
to do it ..

Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks

The problem with doing this, programmatically or otherwise, is that however
you implement it, it's not going to work everywhere.

You can easily send it, but if you do include binary data in the message body,
then however you do it most people will be seeing a garbled (and offensive to
the the eye) message body.

I think it's not the right thing to do, either, if you ever managed to do this
it would be by working around how email is supposed to work.

Eventually, unless you have a userbase that is happy to open things in a
particular way for you, you'll have to bite the bullet and use more orthodox
techniques, methinks.

(he says with an image in his headers)

Ten

 

[Edward Elliott]

I want to send an email message with picture in it. I dont want to put
it as attachment but make it in the body of the mail, so every one who
open the email will see the picture..

Step 1: convert image to ascii art
Step 2: send
Step 3: hope recipient uses a fixed-width font

 

[anya]

Acctualy there is a solution:
see http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/473810
(thanks darrin massena for sharing)

and , if you will set all the neccessary parametrs, it won't be
recognized as a
spam,
thanks

 

[Ten]

Acctualy there is a solution:
see http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/473810
(thanks darrin massena for sharing)

and , if you will set all the neccessary parametrs, it won't be
recognized as a
spam,
thanks

Ahah - a slightly different thing to what I thought you were after.

I'd looked at "every one who open the email will see the picture" and
discounted html mail.

Glad you got what you wanted done, done.

Ten.

 

[Ben Finney]

Acctualy there is a solution:
see http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Cookbook/Python/Recipe/473810

Again, sending anything but plain text as the message body ensures
that your message is unreadable to a large number of people using a
variety of software. It's your choice whether to restrict your
audience in this way, but know that that's what you're doing.

If your message is going to be accompanied by a plain text body anyway
(as advised by the recipe you refer to), that plain text body is either
sufficient to give the necessary information, or not.

If the plain text is sufficient, please don't bloat the message with
the same information in an inefficient, non-standard message body. If
the plain text is not sufficient to say what you want to say, please
use a means of distributing it other than email.

and , if you will set all the neccessary parametrs, it won't be
recognized as a spam,

For many people, who have trained their spam classifier with the
majority of spam they receive, the simple fact that it contains HTML
and images *at all* is enough to classify it as spam.

 

[Max M]

Again, sending anything but plain text as the message body ensures
that your message is unreadable to a large number of people using a
variety of software. It's your choice whether to restrict your
audience in this way, but know that that's what you're doing.

90% of users are non-technical users who use standard email readers,
that can easily read html messages.

In my experience the kind of user that receives emails with html and
pictures often prefer it that way.

So why bother with the lecture? I cannot remember when I have last
received a relevant email that I could not read in text mode.


--

hilsen/regards Max M, Denmark

http://www.mxm.dk/
IT's Mad Science

Phone: +45 66 11 84 94
Mobile: +45 29 93 42 96

 

[Scott David Daniels]

90% of users are non-technical users who use standard email readers,
that can easily read html messages.

In my experience the kind of user that receives emails with html and
pictures often prefer it that way.

So why bother with the lecture? I cannot remember when I have last
received a relevant email that I could not read in text mode.

Because
(A) This _is_ a technical newsgroup with mores you are violating.
(B) Some of us "technical users" avoid such email/news readers
precisely because they can cause tracking across the web.

 

[Max M]

Because
(A) This _is_ a technical newsgroup with mores you are violating.

*I* am? How? By disagreeing on how technology should be used?

(B) Some of us "technical users" avoid such email/news readers
precisely because they can cause tracking across the web.

Yes but some times it's just simpler to send formatted text and images.
I also use text only email. But I don't believe everybody else has to.


--

hilsen/regards Max M, Denmark

http://www.mxm.dk/
IT's Mad Science

Phone: +45 66 11 84 94
Mobile: +45 29 93 42 96

 

[Ten]

90% of users are non-technical users who use standard email readers,
that can easily read html messages.

Even if your 90% were any kind of real statistic, 90% of everyone is not
everyone, and there ends the technical debate.

100 != 90

As a matter of interest, I'm almost sure that on checking you'd find
that of the widely available mail clients, only a minority will display
such a mail properly without further interaction.

You might find that platform neutrality and usefulness to people are
genuine considerations for those with any kind of technical integrity,
and that "most people use this particular piece of proprietary software
so let's just say screw the rest" (whilst still benefiting from a
platform-neutral medium, and bouncing it off open source servers) is
widely considered a shabby and broken way of working.

If people want to palm people off with excuses and
generally implement things in a lazy, badly badly planned, mercenary and
undisciplined way, they're probably better off spending their time with the
non-technical management and not amongst programmers.

Sorry for the rant, good luck to the guy if he's solved his problem,
but damn, that "90% so let's not bother doing things properly" stuff makes my
blood boil.

 

[Edward Elliott]

Sorry for the rant, good luck to the guy if he's solved his problem,
but damn, that "90% so let's not bother doing things properly" stuff makes
my blood boil.

You must really hate browsing the web then.

 

[Ben Finney]

90% of users are non-technical users who use standard email readers,
that can easily read html messages.

Even if your figure of 90% were correct, 10% of readers is still a
large number for most purposes. It's also unknown exactly *which* 10%
of your readers that covers.

In my experience the kind of user that receives emails with html and
pictures often prefer it that way.

What of those who prefer it not to be that way?

What of those who are *incapable* of reading a message that way?

So why bother with the lecture? I cannot remember when I have last
received a relevant email that I could not read in text mode.

Nice for you. Fortunately, standard message formats allow the internet
to be used by those other than the enabled majority. Let's keep it
that way.