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## Discussion regarding Newsletter design and development
Questions to be answered (somewhat):
- Q: Should I use a framework?
- Q: What about SASS, GRUNT and other tools we like so much?
### Should I use a framework?
Yes. Since Email Clients handle HTML very different from web browsers (read: very bad), we can't use the markup we are used to. Good news is there are some framworks that are tested out and can help us developers out:
- http://zurb.com/ink/
- https://github.com/mailchimp/Email-Blueprints
- http://www.campaignmonitor.com/templates/all/
- http://htmlemailboilerplate.com/
I have tried out templates from both MailChimp and Campaign Monitor before. They worked just fine. However, I like the ambition of Ink, and there is some active development going on there. **So I will test out Ink.**
#### Ink
Ink is pure HTML/CSS, and I miss working Sass and Partials. I found this fork of Ink by @happymedium; https://github.com/happymedium/responsive-email-kit
### What about SASS, GRUNT and other tools we like so much?
At the time of this writing [Ink](https://github.com/zurb/ink) doesn't support SASS (or any CSS Pre Processor). People have requested this (https://github.com/zurb/ink/issues/35) and hopefully they will add it in the future. [There are some forks of Ink that you can check out first](https://github.com/zurb/ink/network)
So for SASS, you could check out if some [the forks of Ink](https://github.com/zurb/ink/network) can help you out, or maby implement the SASS you need.
But we still miss a few things.. **Build Processes** that simplify development and deployment for us. Luckily I found [Responsive Email Kit](https://github.com/happymedium/responsive-email-kit) - also a fork (altho unofficial) by @happymedium that integrated Ink into a Grunt and Sass/Compass workflow.
#### Responsive Email Kit by @happymedium
> **[Responsive Email Kit](https://github.com/happymedium/responsive-email-kit)**: A fork of Zurb's excellent Ink responsive email template system integrated into a Grunt and Sass/Compass workflow for automated CSS inlining, quicker editing, image minification, and email testing.
---
### Comments
When browsing the Docs for Ink, I came across this http://zurb.com/university/responsive-emails-intro where Zurb give courses regarding Email development, and I read:
> Understanding table-based layouts: Learn basic table syntax and how to layout with tables rather than divs.
Sad to see courses covering this topic in 2014. (http://pudge.se/rFgA). Projects such such as [Email Standards](http://www.email-standards.org/) who's ambition is to improve email standards - give me hope.
### Links
- https://github.com/dwightjack/grunt-email-boilerplate
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