It's a convention that a well-formatted e-mail should have its line length limited to 70 characters.
However, that was based on the width of what was once the standard 80-column VDU. Wrapping lines at 70 ensured correct display in such a terminal. Times have changed, and most people now view e-mail in clients or browsers with a different and unknown width and proportionally-spaced fonts of an unknown size.
The result is that an e-mail with a forced \r\n at every word break preceding 70 characters rarely displays neatly on a modern client and is apt to look like this:
I wonder whether it's time to abandon the established "good practice" and allow clients to wrap text automatically.
What do people think?
However, that was based on the width of what was once the standard 80-column VDU. Wrapping lines at 70 ensured correct display in such a terminal. Times have changed, and most people now view e-mail in clients or browsers with a different and unknown width and proportionally-spaced fonts of an unknown size.
The result is that an e-mail with a forced \r\n at every word break preceding 70 characters rarely displays neatly on a modern client and is apt to look like this:
which is either too narrow for the viewer's screen or too wide as above.Dear Mr Bloggs,
A Management Committee has been arranged with
voting to conclude at
5:0 on 1/3/2019. For further information or to cast
your votes please
see
https:/.....
I wonder whether it's time to abandon the established "good practice" and allow clients to wrap text automatically.
What do people think?