I need help with making my code look nice when I send it through email. I want to share some terminal commands with my coworker that look like this:
D:\Projects\myproject>git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'
I’m looking for a way to make the code have that nice gray background like you see on coding websites. Is there a trick to do this in email apps? I’ve tried copying and pasting but it just comes out as plain text. Any suggestions would be really helpful.
for sure, email can be a pain for code! have u tried using a service like gist? I just upload my snippets there, and it looks so much better! plus, easy to share links, no formatting fuss!
I use preformatted text blocks with strategic spacing. Most email clients support basic HTML, so wrap your code in <pre> tags with inline styling like <pre style="background-color: #f4f4f4; padding: 10px; border-radius: 4px; font-family: monospace;">. Started doing this after constantly emailing database queries to my team - got sick of the messy formatting. Test with your email client first though, since some corporate ones strip styles. If HTML doesn’t work, I just indent everything with spaces and use monospace font. Keeps the structure readable even if it’s not as pretty as GitHub formatting.
Email clients can be quite tricky for formatting code. A reliable method I’ve found is to switch the font to Courier New before pasting in programs like Outlook or Gmail; this maintains spacing and improves readability. Another effective approach is to first paste your code into a document editor, set a light gray background, and then copy it into your email. This way, the format typically remains intact in HTML emails. For more complex snippets, consider attaching them as a text file.