To send an image in an e-mail, one can either attach it to the e-mail, or load it from the internet via HTML. While the average user may not notice a difference in most cases, the differences are technically important. On one hand, the e-mail contains all the necessary data at the cost of file size. On the other, messages can be made arbitrarily ornate while still being lightweight, but are dependent on connection to an external source.
Sometimes it’s important for the user to know whether images are attached or retrieved via HTML – for example, when deleting large messages to save space, or if one is curious whether certain e-mail elements are being used as tracking beacons. Is there a simple way to do this?
While I’m sure there are general solutions, some details may differ based on the e-mail service. I use Gmail, but am interested to hear if other e-mail services have solutions not available in Gmail.
