Text-based email client explained

A text-based email client is an email client with its user interface being text-based, occupying a whole terminal screen. Other kind of email clients are GUI-based (cf. email client) or Web-based, see Webmail.

Text-based email clients may be useful for users with visual impairment or partial blindness allowing speech synthesis or text-to-speech software to read content to users. Text-based email clients also allow to manage communication via simple remote sessions, e. g. per SSH, for instance when it is not possible to install a local GUI-client and/or access mail via Web interface. Also users may prefer text-based user interfaces in general.

Typical features include:

• Editing various emails via tab support
  • Configurable rendering of various MIME types, for instance OpenPGP encryption or HTML email Vim-style keybindings
• Support for multiple accounts and protocols, e. g. IMAP, Maildir, SMTP, and sendmail
• UTF-8 support

List of text-based email clients

Notable clients include:

• aerc
  • Cone Elm
• Emacs: Gnus, mu4e, rmail, Wanderlust
• Lumail
• mblaze
• meli
• Mutt
  • • NeoMutt pine
  • alpine
• sup
• vim (using a plugin^[1] for himalaya)

Email software for the command line that does not occupy the whole screen (cf. TUI) include e. g. Cleancode eMail, CURL,^[2] himalaya, mail (Unix), mailx, MH, procmail, sendmail, and many others.

See also

• Text-based web browser
• Comparison of email clients

Notes and References

1. Web site: Himalaya/Vim at master · soywod/Himalaya. GitHub.
2. Web site: Reading email - everything curl. everything.curl.dev.