I think it's better to be both -- i.e. put things in both types of mailboxes...

Do an electronic newsletter with breaking info and a printed one with long term items.

Bob H

Actually, I believe email should only ever be plaintext, except for attachments which of course can be anything. The reason is interoperability with a variety of readers ranging from "Elm" to "Kindle". None of my mailreaders read HTML mail properly, and that's true for a lot of people. That's why you see links that say "Can't see this email? Click here for the web version" in many business emails. Leave HTML on the web, where it belongs. The way to send HTML in the mail is to put up a web page, then email the URL.

The PDF format is a quasi-standard written and read by many software programs, not merely by Adobe's. However I have sometimes seen PDFs readable only by "Adobe Reader 9"... don't create those, please.

As for font, I hope the editor is reasonable in his font choice. Size is cured by zooming, easier in PDF than in HTML. Highlighting works for me in all PDF readers I've tried. I'm sure you have seen some PDF documents which don't allow highlighting; some documents are "locked", disallowing highlighting, cutting or pasting for copyright reasons. Generally we wouldn't lock a PDF...

Clyde,

The only concern I have about "color in the digital version and black and white printed" is that the translation of color to black and white using originally color images sometimes influences the print converted halftone images. For example, a strong medium red can reproduce as a solid black; so a red and black loco cab may show little or no differentiation in the halftone created at the digital imagesetter (printer). We have toyed with doing the same thing, but I would insist that the images be grayscaled in the file before the printing process, which unfortunately nearly doubles the editor's work!

"Printing doesn't cost, it sells." Within the past few months, a gentleman over 1800 miles away who has never visited our museum (or the internet for that matter), read an article printed in our newsletter proposing the acquisition and restoration of a certain railcar. He sat down wrote out a check for $50,000; and this week the car arrived! Now, $50,000 can buy a lot of $105 mailings!

Does your recipient list include potential donors and other strategic people and organizations who are not members?

Now there's a statement for keeping in touch with your constituency!

It occurs to me the modern age has given us another format to contend with. The Kindle, iPhone, and other portable readers.