TOOL
Newsletter header template
🛠️ Newsletter header template
💡 Use Case
- The masthead of Slack in the System, unchanged since issue 1 on 1 October 2023: name, a rule, the issue number and the date.
- It exists so that Thursday at 07:30 involves no design decision at all. I duplicate the last issue and change two things.
- Every issue in 📂 Slack in the System - 2025 issues wears it, from 📝 Issue 31 - The year of using the thing onward and the thirty before.
How I use it
| Part | Setting |
|---|---|
| Column | 600 px wide, centred; narrowed to 560 from April |
| Name | Text face, 28 px, regular, left-aligned |
| Space under the name | 12 px |
| Rule | 1 px, mid grey, full column width |
| Issue line | Label face, 13 px, small capitals: Issue 31 · 9 January 2025 |
| Where the number goes | Left, under the rule. Never in the subject line |
| Space before the essay | 32 px |
- Duplicate the previous issue.
- Change the number. Change the date.
- Read the issue line aloud. This catches the wrong month.
⚖️ Pros & Cons
Pros
- Two things change per issue. I have still got one of them wrong three times.
- No image, so nothing to choose, compress or regret.
- It looks the same in a dark mail program as in a light one, because there is nothing in it to invert.
Cons
- It is plain to the point of looking unfinished, and twice a year I want to redesign it. Both times it went on the itch list.
- The issue number is small. Readers who reply quote the title, never the number, which tells me who the number is for.
🔄 Alternatives
- A photograph across the top. I have twelve cleared for the purpose and have used none.
- Whatever the platform's default is this year.