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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →=3D in an email’s raw source is quoted-printable encoding for a literal equals sign. It is part of the email’s transport-encoded text, not an HTML feature and not a reference to three-dimensional content. For example, content=3D"text/html; charset=3DUTF-8" decodes to content="text/html; charset=UTF-8".
Why does the email contain =3D?
Email can use MIME content-transfer encodings to carry message content. When the body is encoded using quoted-printable, certain characters are represented as an equals sign followed by a hexadecimal value. The sequence =3D represents the ASCII equals sign.
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That explains examples such as xmlns=3D"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml": after decoding, it is the ordinary HTML attribute assignment xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml". The 2011 SitePoint forum post shows this encoding in an HTML email example, but does not include the complete message headers, so it does not establish which sender setting produced that particular message (SitePoint Forums).
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesWhat does an equals sign at the end of a line mean?
A final equals sign in quoted-printable text has a different role from =3D. It marks a soft line break: the encoded line continues on the next line, and the break does not add a meaningful line break to the decoded content. RFC 2045 states: “An equal sign as the last character on an encoded line indicates such a non-significant (“soft”) line break in the encoded text.” (RFC 2045, section 6.7.)
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RFC 2045 limits quoted-printable encoded lines to 76 characters. Soft breaks let a longer logical line continue while meeting that format limit; they are not punctuation that should remain in the decoded HTML (RFC 2045, section 6.7).
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should I read or decode the snippet?
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Decode quoted-printable content first, rather than interpreting the raw encoded body as HTML.
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Replace encoded
=3Dsequences with literal=signs. Do not remove every equals sign: ordinary equals signs are needed in decoded HTML attribute assignments.Recommended: PC Feels Slow? A Free Scan Shows What's Dragging Windows Down →Recommended: Update Every Outdated Driver on Your PC in One Scan - Free →Recommended: Fix Windows Errors and Clear Junk Files in Minutes - Free Scan →Special offer. See more information about Outbyte and uninstall instructions. Please review EULA and Privacy policy. -
Where an encoded line ends with a single equals sign used as a soft break, remove that marker and join the next line as part of the same decoded text.
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Read the resulting content as HTML. A mail client normally decodes the MIME part for display, so the encoding is usually visible when inspecting raw email source rather than the rendered message.
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