[HN Gopher] Show HN: Email.md - Markdown to responsive, email-sa...
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Show HN: Email.md - Markdown to responsive, email-safe HTML
Author : dancablam
Score : 168 points
Date : 2026-03-24 16:26 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.emailmd.dev)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.emailmd.dev)
| alfanick wrote:
| "Write markdown. Ship emails." - I see a particular group of
| people interested in this, but they have their tools already.
| SunshineTheCat wrote:
| I think you should probably let that group of people speak for
| themselves.
|
| I'm in this "group" and see an immediate usefulness of this
| over what I'm doing now.
| Kwpolska wrote:
| This appears to be a MJML wrapper with a Markdown-HTML converter
| attached to it. I think generating HTML from code is easier than
| generating Markdown, since there are many templating tools that
| understand HTML escaping. And writing HTML is not that hard,
| especially for your typical emails, so I'm not really sure if
| this library would be helpful in the long run.
| dallen33 wrote:
| I like the idea of this tool, as writing Markdown for some
| people is probably easier than HTML. I mean, use whatever
| floats your boat. I like that this exists.
| j45 wrote:
| Also a way to use fewer standards for storage of input and
| created text.
| koakuma-chan wrote:
| I wish people just sent plain text.
| XCSme wrote:
| What about images, links? Formatted text like bold or
| underline?
|
| I also prefer plain text, but in most of my emails I talk about
| technical stuff, or I send transactional emails that require
| actions, in which case showing buttons is a much better user
| experience than plain text.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| I don't want buttons in my emails.
| XCSme wrote:
| But they are a lot easier to see and click (accessibility,
| larger hit area).
|
| You could have a larger text instead of a button, but
| changing font size is also HTML and not plain-text anymore.
| koakuma-chan wrote:
| You can just send a link, and the user's client will
| probably highlight it even if it is plain text.
| recursivegirth wrote:
| Yea, but how will they hide all the tracking URLs and
| base64 encoded PII from you in the email?
| koakuma-chan wrote:
| Using a URL shortener obviously. But you are right, if
| they only send plain text, they won't be able to include
| those 1x1 images at the bottom to track whether you have
| opened the email. Any sane email client blocks images by
| default, but whatever.
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| I don't have problems seeing and clicking normal text,
| thank you very much. I don't want buttons on my emails.
| XCSme wrote:
| I think the OP app is meant for creating transactional
| emails (or bulk-send emails like newsletters).
|
| Those templates should account for all types of people
| and accessibility levels (including things like ADHD,
| where you need a big red button to click, otherwise you
| get overwhelmed by a block of text).
| antiframe wrote:
| Every MUA I've used allows the reader to set a font size,
| so changing font sizes is 100% a feature of plain-text
| emails. Then they get the link the size they need to read
| it correctly and it's absolutely easy to read. This here
| comment is pain text. Is it hard to read this link:
|
| http://microsoft.com/
|
| I don't think so. I certainly didn't have to resort to
| HTML to make that link readable and clickable.
| linhns wrote:
| A picture is worth a thousand words.
| pembrook wrote:
| Plain text? Pffft.
|
| Human language is an unnecessary abstraction, just like images.
|
| I wish everyone would communicate in pure Binary.
| ape4 wrote:
| Yeah, the first example on that site doesn't need any
| formatting. It just says your code is <code>
| nailer wrote:
| I don't. Plain text is typically formatted for 72-78 monospace
| characters - even if you don't want formatting, the text will
| look bad on any device that doesn't match IBM's 80-character
| punch cards from 1928.
| Avamander wrote:
| In theory format=flowed solves that, but the same boomers
| that despise HTML mail also refuse to provide that
| accommodation, for anyone not behind a teletype.
| KhushaliT wrote:
| templates are cool but seems too heavy to land in primary inbox
| pembrook wrote:
| I like how you aren't hiding the fact this is MJML under the hood
| and don't layer complex abstractions over MJML spec like similar
| projects ( _cough_ react email _cough_ ).
|
| The devs maintaining MJML deserve so much credit for dealing with
| Gmail/Outlook's monopoly bullshit and 2007 html.
|
| Nice idea for those who manage content in markdown. I've moved
| away from putting emails in my codebase, but seems great for
| founders moving fast.
| dancablam wrote:
| Thanks! I agree - the MJML team has laid so much groundwork and
| it frankly made this project possible.
| binaryturtle wrote:
| Any "HTML emails" get filtered straight into the spam folder
| here. I think I'm not part of the target audience here.
| ph4rsikal wrote:
| Markdown is the secret winner of the AI early years.
| hatmatrix wrote:
| cries in org-mode
| terminalgravity wrote:
| I feel you on this too.
| theanonymousone wrote:
| I hope .md domains do not become a security hole as Markdown
| raises in popularity...
| Imustaskforhelp wrote:
| This reminds me of the infamous dot zip domain and the security
| chaos that had followed.
| brian93512 wrote:
| That's a valid concern, especially given the confusion we saw
| with .zip or .mov TLDs. But from a security engineering
| perspective, the bigger 'Markdown hole' I worry about is
| injection. When we render untrusted AI output into HTML for
| email, the sanitization pipeline becomes critical. I'd be
| curious to see how this library handles potential XSS vectors
| during the MD-to-HTML conversion.
| Igor_Wiwi wrote:
| I am working on smth similar markdown reader for humans, not
| agents - https://mdview.io
| matzalazar wrote:
| Great project! And if you don't mind a little workaround and some
| Python scripting, you can turn a regular Obsidian folder into an
| automatic outbox. Write markdown, drag, drop, and ship.
| safehuss wrote:
| Anything that makes email development easier is great I guess,
| but have personally found MJML great for solving the issues you'd
| run into, and not sure I want yet another abstraction layer on
| top of that which makes it more limited...
| deanputney wrote:
| Curious why the CLI function is `mvd` instead of `mdv`?
| dancablam wrote:
| What CLI function?
| articsputnik wrote:
| Love everything to Markdownify :) I was just wondering, is there
| a Neovim/Markdown email client? Potentially using something like
| this? I love Neomutt, or Newsboat, and other TUIs. It would be
| great to have something totally on Markdown. Update: I gave it a
| spin [1] with Go and some of my favorite CLI's.
|
| [1] https://x.com/sspaeti/status/2036539855182627169
| dancablam wrote:
| There's not one that I'm aware of. Maybe it's about time there
| is :D
| rbbydotdev wrote:
| Nice usage of admonitions. This is a great example of how
| eloquent markdown can be. Still very readable while even
| including the markup for 'footer' and the call out code.
| gojomo wrote:
| Which email client will stylize raw markdown itself, making the
| HTML step here superfluous?
| Avamander wrote:
| It would first require a standard for Markdown. After that
| there would be very little stopping anyone from implementing
| it. I guess a MIME type for standard Markdown would also be
| nice.
|
| Pretty sure I've said it before, but it would be a nice middle
| ground between text and all the complexity HTML+CSS brings in
| (if you want to compete with other HTML clients).
| Escapade5160 wrote:
| At this point markdown is going to be the foundation of the
| entire AI web. Someone the other day showed off Markdown as a
| responsive frontend protocol. Now we've got email. How long until
| we're writing classes in markdown? We can only abstract this so
| far before we confuse AI more than help it.
| Barbing wrote:
| Very nice. I think the kind of folks attracted to this thread
| might have some thoughts on a workflow I'm interested in.
|
| When I see a news article, I want to be able to click a button on
| my Mac or iPhone to send the text of the article in the body of
| the email. Bonus points for rehosting the images from the
| article. And using a similar font both without carrying over any
| of the original external dependencies.
|
| Normally it's good to support the journalist but I cannot in good
| conscience send a link to elderly folks when this is so much
| safer.
| runtype wrote:
| Would love to use this - any plans for Cloudflare Workers
| support? Some of the node APIs you're using block it from working
| on Cloudflare right now.
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(page generated 2026-03-24 23:00 UTC)