Tools · runs in your browser
Signature maker
A logo pasted into a signature arrives as image001.png, and ten lines of numbers and icons bury the one way people need to reach you. Fill in four lines, give the web address of your logo, and copy a signature that shows the logo instead of attaching it.
Pasting it in
| Mailbox | Steps |
|---|---|
| Gmail (web) | Press Copy signature. Settings (gear) › See all settings › General › Signature › Create new, name it, click in the box and paste (Ctrl+V, or ⌘V on a Mac). Pick it under "Signature defaults" for new emails and for replies, tick "Insert this signature before quoted text", then Save Changes at the bottom of the page. |
| Gmail app | Settings › your account › Mobile signature. It takes plain text only: paste the plain-text version without the -- line. |
| New Outlook and Outlook on the web | Press Copy signature. Settings › Accounts › Signatures › New signature, paste, choose it for new messages and for replies, Save. |
| Classic Outlook (Windows) | File › Options › Mail › Signatures › New, paste into the edit box, set the defaults on the right, OK. It is kept on that computer only. |
| Apple Mail (Mac) | Mail › Settings › Signatures › +, untick "Always match my default message font", paste. Don't drag a logo file in: that's the attachment again. |
If the logo shows as a broken picture after pasting, open its address in a new tab. It should show the picture alone, without a page around it, and without asking you to sign in.
How it builds the signature
- Four lines: your name, role and business on one line, the phone and the link on one line, and an address only if people come to you. RFC 1855, the netiquette guide of 1995, put the limit at four lines, and it still reads well on a phone.
- The logo is linked, not attached. The signature points to the file on your website, so nothing travels with the email and nothing turns into
image001.png. It is shown at most 300 by 80 pixels, the size Google suggests for a Gmail signature image, with its proportions kept; a file twice that size stays sharp on high-resolution screens. The alt text is your business name, so a blocked picture still says who you are. - It refuses what breaks: a pasted picture (
data:address), anhttp://logo, and it warns about Drive and Dropbox share links, which open a page rather than the picture, and about WebP and SVG files, which Outlook and Gmail don't show. - The phone becomes a link that dials on a phone (
tel:), and the website shows withouthttps://andwww. - Plain HTML with the styles written inline, Arial at 14 pixels, because mail programs drop style sheets. It counts the characters against Gmail's limit of 10,000 for a signature.
- The plain-text version starts with
--(two dashes and a space, RFC 3676), which mail programs use to fold a signature away in long threads.
What to leave out, the law on company details in the UK and Germany, signatures for a shared address, and why the logo turns into an attachment in the first place: Email signatures for a small business: four lines, and the logo that arrives as an attachment.
A business address to sign it from
Open a mailbox at email59.com and write from a name of your own, with the signature set once.