diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index b58d2ba..40080bb 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -51,6 +51,8 @@ export type { ContentProps } from './templates/content/content';
 
 export { document, mergeShell, openTag, serializeAttributes } from './templates/document';
 export type { DocumentProps, DocumentShellOptions, TagAttributes } from './templates/document';
+export { xhtmlDocument, XHTML_DOCTYPE } from './templates/document';
+export type { XhtmlDocumentProps } from './templates/document';
 
 export { byteLength, measureSize, CLIP_BYTES, NEAR_BYTES } from './quality/size';
 export type { ClipRisk, PartSize, SizeOptions, SizeReport } from './quality/size';
diff --git a/src/templates/document/index.ts b/src/templates/document/index.ts
index a6d116e..1bbbfd3 100644
--- a/src/templates/document/index.ts
+++ b/src/templates/document/index.ts
@@ -16,3 +16,6 @@ export { openTag, serializeAttributes } from '../../utils/openTag';
 export type { TagAttributes } from '../../utils/openTag';
 
 export { mergeShell } from './mergeShell';
+
+export { xhtmlDocument, XHTML_DOCTYPE } from './xhtmlDocument';
+export type { XhtmlDocumentProps } from './xhtmlDocument';
diff --git a/src/templates/document/xhtmlDocument.ts b/src/templates/document/xhtmlDocument.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67a39cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/templates/document/xhtmlDocument.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+import { document } from './document';
+import type { DocumentProps } from './document';
+
+/** XHTML 1.0 Transitional doctype used by classic table-based email templates. */
+export const XHTML_DOCTYPE =
+  '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">';
+
+export type XhtmlDocumentProps = Omit<DocumentProps, 'doctype' | 'lang' | 'htmlAttributes'>;
+
+/**
+ * Full XHTML transitional document: XHTML doctype, `<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">`,
+ * no `lang`. Same slots as `document()`; the shell is baked in.
+ */
+export function xhtmlDocument(props: XhtmlDocumentProps = {}): string {
+  return document({
+    ...props,
+    doctype: XHTML_DOCTYPE,
+    lang: false,
+    htmlAttributes: { xmlns: 'http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml' },
+  });
+}
diff --git a/test/index.test.ts b/test/index.test.ts
index 5d6dbaa..e0f53e0 100644
--- a/test/index.test.ts
+++ b/test/index.test.ts
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ import { sampleHtml } from '../examples/compose';
 import { body } from '../src/templates/body/body';
 import { content } from '../src/templates/content/content';
 import { document } from '../src/templates/document/document';
+import { xhtmlDocument, XHTML_DOCTYPE } from '../src/templates/document/xhtmlDocument';
+import * as root from '../src/index';
 import { footer } from '../src/templates/footer/footer';
 import { head } from '../src/templates/head/head';
 import { main } from '../src/templates/main/main';
@@ -153,3 +155,20 @@ describe('content', () => {
     expect(content({ content: '<p>Hello</p>' })).toContain('<p>Hello</p>');
   });
 });
+
+describe('xhtmlDocument', () => {
+  it('bakes in the XHTML doctype, xmlns and no lang', () => {
+    const html = xhtmlDocument({ headHtml: '<head></head>', mainHtml: '<main></main>' });
+    expect(html.startsWith(`${XHTML_DOCTYPE}\n<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">`)).toBe(
+      true,
+    );
+    expect(html).not.toContain('lang=');
+    expect(html).toContain('<main></main>');
+    expect(html).not.toContain('undefined');
+  });
+
+  it('works with no props and is exported from the root', () => {
+    expect(root.xhtmlDocument()).toBe(xhtmlDocument());
+    expect(root.XHTML_DOCTYPE).toBe(XHTML_DOCTYPE);
+  });
+});