Enriched text
| Internet media type |
text/enriched |
|---|---|
| Type of format | Formatted text format |
| Standard | RFC 1896 |
Enriched text is a formatted text format for e-mail, defined by the IETF in RFC 1896 and associated with the text/enriched MIME type. It is "intended to facilitate the wider interoperation of simple enriched text across a wide variety of hardware and software platforms". As of 2012, enriched text remained almost unknown in e-mail traffic, while HTML e-mail is widely used. Enriched text, or at least the subset of HTML that can be transformed into enriched text, is seen as superior to full HTML for use with e-mail (mainly because of security considerations).[1]
A predecessor of this MIME type was called text/richtext in RFC 1341 and RFC 1521. Neither should be confused with Rich Text Format (MIME type text/rtf or application/rtf) which are unrelated specifications, devised by Microsoft.
A single newline in enriched text is treated as a space. Formatting commands are in the same style as SGML and HTML. They must be balanced and nested.
Examples
<bold><italic>Hello, world!</italic></bold>
<italic><bold>Hello, world!</bold></italic>
The following, on the other hand, is not:
<bold><italic>Hello, world!</bold></italic>
The following enriched text:
<color><param>red</param>Blood</color> is <bold>thicker</bold> than
<color><param>blue</param>water</color>.
<paraindent><param>left</param><italic>-- Well-known proverb
</italic></paraindent>
yields
Blood is thicker than water.
- -- Well-known proverb
Enriched text is a supported format of Emacs,[2] Mutt[3] and Mulberry.