MacMost Now 487: Including Images in Email Signatures

A common request is to include a small image in Apple Mail email signatures. This isn't easy to do, but there is a trick that can be applied to get a small image added to your signature.

Comments: 34 Responses to “MacMost Now 487: Including Images in Email Signatures”

    Seb
    14 years ago

    Gary, it is a very simple way to get an image into your email signature: just drag your image file and drop it to Signature window in Mail when adding new signature. As simple as that :-)

      14 years ago

      That doesn't work nearly as well. It will most likely show up for others also using Apple Mail. But for the rest it will show up as an attachment. You need to use the technique I describe to get it to work for others.

        Nicky Khanwani
        14 years ago

        Hey Gary Can you help with it as well??...Would appreciate as i also am facing the same problem by sending mail to many of my biz people using windows mail

    Seb
    14 years ago

    Yes, you are absolutely right Gary :-) I've just checked both methods and your solution works perfect either in email client apps or webmail. Many thanks for that tip!

    Joe
    14 years ago

    How about a quick tutorial on how to create the HTML file you discuss.

      14 years ago

      I show the complete contents of the file on the screen. Just use TextEdit -- set it to plain text mode -- and type something similar using
      between lines and the img tag with your image.

    craig
    14 years ago

    Hey Gary, is there anyway to not have the picture show up as an attachment? In your example above, when sent to your self, there is now an attachment. In my opinion it gets very confusing when i receive mail from someone and they always have a "signature" attachment, i oftentimes forget to look for a "real " attachment in their emails.

      14 years ago

      There is a way. But it isn't easy. You need to send HTML email. The body of the email is HTML formatted and includes references to images on a server. The MacMost newsletter does it this way, as do many professional newsletters. But doing it for personal email is a lot of effort and Mail isn't the right tool to use. Plus, if the person has image display turned off for the email, they still don't get to see it.

    Mehdi
    14 years ago

    hello Gary,

    i just wanted to install XP on my MacBook, since i had partitioned my MacBook before, the Boot Camp could not run and i received the message that the start up partition should not be partitioned before or it has been partitioned by Boost Camp before!
    Is it normal? Should I necessarily delete my other Partition and then install the windows? Is there any way that i can keep my two partitions (Start Up one and the new partition) and also install windows?

    Regards
    Mehdi

      14 years ago

      Right. I believe Boot Camp wants to do the partition itself -- it cannot use an existing one.

    Donna
    14 years ago

    I was successful at creating an html for my signature, but I can't seem to make a picture file that will work. I put a picture in TextEdit saved it but had to add jpg.rtfd it worked fine until I double clicked on my signature folder and my name showed up with a ? for the picture. I'm trying to learn new things, but
    clearly I struggle with the basics. Can you tell me how to make the picture file?
    Thank you so much. I love your videos.

      14 years ago

      You make the picture file by using an image editor like Photoshop. You could export an image from iPhoto, but even the smallest size is probably too big for use in a signature.

    Donna
    14 years ago

    Thank you, Gary. I'm with you so far. Where do I need to export my image to? And how can I make it small enough? As I mentioned I was putting my image in TextEdit but then it was telling me I needed to make the image rtfd. or jpg. and rtfd.

      14 years ago

      I'm not sure how to advise you past this. You can save the image anywhere, but making it small enough is a matter of using image editing tools. If you aren't familiar with them at all, then I would suggest getting someone to sit down with you and show you how.

    Donna
    14 years ago

    Thank you, Gary. I'm actually pretty good with image editing once I'm in there, so I an figure that out. Everything makes better sense to me now.
    Happy New Year. Thank you for all the information and support.

      sami elias
      14 years ago

      Hi Gary
      I became addict to your advises , moved to all MAC world after 23 years with MS ,
      As for E-Mail it is still a big problem for me, Apple Mail is so stable but missing lots of features , MAC Office 2011 is great but could not afford my huge mail boxes , crashed second day , is there a way to compromise with MAC Outlook ??

        14 years ago

        I haven't used the new Mac Outlook at all, really. It might. Why not try it if you have it? But what features are missing from Mac Mail? I've a very heavy email user and I use Mail without feeling there are missing features.

    Jim Long
    14 years ago

    Hey Gary,

    I've watched this video over and over and can't figure out how to put the correct image tag in the html file. I have several clients that want to include the social media icons: twitter, facebook, and Linked in, in their signature with links to those pages. Can you help me? Or I should say WILL you help me?

      14 years ago

      So explain what you are trying and what the results are. Did you try just doing exactly the code in the video? Are you using TextEdit -- and have it set to Plain Text not Rich Text?

    Anthony
    14 years ago

    Gary you're the best! Thanks. I had to re-watch it a couple times, but just followed exactly what you did. I did get a hiccup when my textedit file wasn't set as a Plain text, but other than that it worked great! This is really going to come in handy as I send out Thank You emails for job interviews!

    Hugh Bradley
    14 years ago

    Gary: I created a new file from TextEdit (Plain Text). Added the HTML code, tried to save as html page---no html(web page view) listed in menu. When I use Rich Text, there is the html. I was using the Rich Text, but the image does not appear in preview. I followed your video 3X --what am I missing? Thanks for your help.

      14 years ago

      You don't want to "save as" HTML. You want to save it as text. A .txt file is OK. So it is plain text. Then change the file name to .html. Or, save it as plain text, but just give it a .html file name.

    Hugh Bradley
    14 years ago

    Thanks Gary: I opened TextEdit; created the file and changed format to plain text; saved. Dialogue appeared on "changing the extension to html": 'you have used the ext. 'html' at the end of the name. The standard ext. is .txt' I clicked on 'html'. Doubled click the file and viola! it worked. Thanks, Hugh

    Luke
    13 years ago

    Hello Gary,

    Do you have any idea how to do this onto the ipad2 and reference the photo from a public server?

      13 years ago

      I'm pretty sure that Mail on the iPad only uses plain text signatures.

        Luke
        13 years ago

        Thank you so much. I have litterally spent a week on this and finally, someone with enough expertise to say it's not possible. Thank you again, what a relief....turns out I'm not a total idiot after all!

    Patty
    13 years ago

    Ok, I have watched this video literally 20 times and I have tried everthing possible and my picture is still not showing up. this is the html I have
    -----
    Patty Calla

    I have made the image very small. what am I doing wrong. PLEASE HELP! I need sleep!!

      Patty
      13 years ago

      ok, so the html didn't show up above. I wish I was more computer savvy!!

        13 years ago

        Make sure you are saving the html file as a plain text file, not "rich text" or anything else. That's the most common mistake.

          Patty
          13 years ago

          I have saved it every way possible. It will come up with everything but where the picture should be it is a box with a ?.

            13 years ago

            Hard to say what you might be doing wrong. Maybe start from scratch and try again?

              Scott
              13 years ago

              Gary,

              Any idea why my Mac mail signature is showing up very large on outlook users screens? Very embarrassing!

              Scott

                13 years ago

                Hard to say without seeing how you have your signature set up. Try altering that. I can only guess that you are using rich text email, and that you have the font size set in your signature. Try experimenting with how you have it formatted. You'll need a friend who has this issue and can give you feedback as you experiment.

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