And how HTML in emails is getting in the way of communication?
Most people use GMail as their email client, so even when they read plain text emails what they actually see is HTML email. The only difference is typeface, but you can configure that.
HTML as a technology to render plain text obviously isn't getting in the way, because it's plain text. All the features of HTML beyond that get in the way by obscuring the plain text and the information plain text conveys. In my mind, email, or text communication, is not about presentation but is about textual content. If you want to deliver media or style or a visual presentation, it's just not email. I would strongly prefer if it was a plain url or safe attachment in format that doesn't allow any kind of scripting.
> All the features of HTML beyond that get in the way by obscuring the plain text and the information plain text conveys.
I don't see any obfuscation happening in the emails shown in this article. Rather, the article's suggestions give even more emphasis to the text.
"Grr HTML bad" is not a very defensible position.
> In my mind, email, or text communication, is not about presentation but is about textual content.
It was recognized before email even existed that presentation is fundamental to textual communication. Cf. the works of Jan Tschichold and Marshall McLuhan to pick two arbitrary examples.
I agree that typography, a tiny subset of HTML, is important, and that the emails in article look good and are very readable. However, like with most things, such as scripting and root access, there are security and eyecare concerns involved. And so, I think it is still best that only I am allowed to pick the font and spacing that are comfortable for me, and the sender can only send me plain text information.
Why do you think so many books don't use colors, images and other ways to convey information?
Why do you think comments on this website don't let you use colors, images and videos?
Colors and images were used long before text to convey information. Then they were used together with text (see first books). Using just text without colors and images is a relatively new invention caused by technical limitations, and it didn't last long.
