Today marks the debut of Ink, an innovative open-source project spearheaded by ZURB, the developers of the renowned front-end web development framework, Foundation.
Ink addresses a significant challenge: crafting a straightforward HTML email that performs satisfactorily across the multitude of desktop and web email applications available is no small feat — and can be incredibly frustrating. Ensuring that HTML emails are responsive on mobile devices adds an exponential layer of complexity to the process.However, considering that over 40% of emails are accessed on mobile devices, the importance of distributing responsive HTML emails cannot be overstated.How does Ink alleviate the struggles associated with creating responsive HTML emails?Matt Kelly, the creator of Ink and a partner at ZURB, explains, “There are numerous excellent solutions for responsive emails, but Ink consolidates them into a single, thoroughly tested framework.”Here are some intriguing features I discovered within Ink:It comes with five responsive email boilerplate templates, which will undoubtedly be a boon for new users of the framework (the image below showcases the Newsletter template).
Ink is open-source, and the official repository can be found on GitHub.The documentation is user-friendly and will facilitate a quick start for users.
The framework offers features such as:
CSS classes for visibility, enabling conditional hiding and showing of HTML elements based on specific user agents
A grid system that streamlines the process of designing email layouts
Buttons that degrade gracefully when email recipients have images disabled by default
For inline CSS styles, the Ink Inliner tool is available, which is particularly beneficial for Gmail.
Ink is compatible with the following email clients:
Apple Mail (versions 5 and 6)
Microsoft Outlook (2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013)
Mozilla Thunderbird (versions 3 and the latest)
Android Native (versions 2.3 and 4)
iOS Native (versions 6 and 7)
AOL Mail
Gmail
Yahoo! Mail
Outlook.com
Full disclosure: Ink was launched just minutes prior to the publication of this article. However, I was granted password-protected access to their site several hours before the launch by one of ZURB’s founders to review the project.
