Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - A convention that allows computer files of any type to be encoded as if they were plain text and sent as attachments to e-mail messages. Your e-mail program may have options for ‘MIME Compliant’ or ‘Allow 8-bit’ - usually it is more reliable to use the MIME option as some systems in the path to your mail’s destination may not be capable of carrying 8-bit data.

MIME is more powerful than its predecessor, UUENCODE (pr. you-you-encode), but not all systems accept it.