Free Email Signature Generator

Preview

How do I add this to Gmail?

Click "Copy Signature", then in Gmail go to Settings → General → Signature. Click in the signature box and paste (Ctrl+V / Cmd+V). Gmail will preserve the formatting.

How do I add this to Outlook?

Click "Copy Signature", then in Outlook go to Settings → Mail → Compose and reply. Click in the signature editor and paste. For the desktop app: File → Options → Mail → Signatures → paste into the editor.

Why HTML Email Is Such a Strange Place to Design In

If you've ever crafted a signature in a website's CSS-and-flexbox world and then watched it disintegrate inside an email, you've met the central problem: there is no single "email rendering engine." Every major mail client uses different code to display HTML, and the rules for what works are decades behind the modern web. Gmail strips most CSS that lives outside the element's style attribute, Apple Mail uses WebKit (so it's fairly modern), and Outlook for Windows has rendered HTML emails using Microsoft Word's HTML engine since Outlook 2007, which means flexbox, grid, modern selectors, web fonts, and most CSS animations simply don't work. The compatibility scoreboard at caniemail.com tracks all this and is sobering reading.

The practical consequence: HTML email signatures are designed against the lowest common denominator. The code this generator emits uses inline styles and a table-based layout, the only combination that survives the trip through Outlook desktop, Outlook 365 web, Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo, iCloud, and the various mobile clients without falling apart.

What Belongs in a Modern Signature

There's no single "correct" signature, but the elements that consistently earn their place:

• Name, slightly larger and bolder than the rest. The first thing a recipient should see.
• Title and company, secondary line, lighter colour. Combine on one line if both are short.
• Phone, wrapped in a tel: link so a tap on mobile dials.
• Email, wrapped in a mailto: link, mostly for completeness; recipients already know your address.
• Website, clickable, often in the brand accent colour.
• Logo or photo, typically 60 to 100 px square or a 150×40 banner. Don't go larger; large images bloat every outgoing email.
• Social icons, 24 to 32 px, two or three at most. LinkedIn, X, GitHub, sometimes Instagram, match what your audience uses.

Optional, increasingly common since 2020: pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them) on the same line as the title.

What to Leave Off

• Inspirational quotes. Recipients consistently find them unprofessional in research surveys; few people want a corporate signature followed by Gandhi.
• "Sent from my iPhone"-style auto-additions. Recipients understand mobile email exists; the line adds nothing.
• Multiple fonts. Stick to one. Mixing fonts in HTML email is asking Outlook to substitute the wrong one.
• Heavy logos over 50 KB. Every email you send carries the weight; large signatures bloat conversation threads quickly.
• Animated GIFs in critical positions. Outlook 2007 to 2019 renders animated GIFs as the first frame only, design accordingly.
• Background images. Outlook desktop has notoriously buggy background-image support. Use solid colour fills instead.
• Lists of skills or services. A signature isn't a billboard. Link to a profile page if the audience needs to know more.

Why Tables and Inline Styles?

Two compatibility realities make this the only safe choice:

1. Outlook desktop renders HTML using Microsoft Word. Word's HTML engine doesn't understand display: flex, display: grid, modern positioning, most pseudo-classes, or web fonts beyond a couple of system fonts. Tables with explicit widths and inline padding are what Word can lay out reliably.
2. Gmail aggressively strips CSS that lives in a <style> block or external stylesheet, even quoted in an email reply, those rules vanish. CSS in style="..." attributes on individual elements survives.

The combination, table layout for structure, inline styles for visual rules, produces a signature that looks the same in Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, and the various Outlook web variants. The output of this tool follows that pattern.

How to Paste It Where It Goes

• Gmail (web): Click the gear, See all settings, General, scroll to Signature, Create new, click into the editor and paste. Gmail preserves inline styles. Set as default for new mail / replies and save changes.
• Outlook 365 / Outlook on the Web: Settings (gear icon), Mail, Compose and reply, Email signature, click into the editor and paste. Save.
• Outlook desktop (Windows): File, Options, Mail, Signatures, New, name it, paste into the editor, save. Assign to a default account if you have multiple.
• Outlook for Mac: Outlook, Preferences, Signatures, click +, paste.
• Apple Mail: Mail, Settings, Signatures, drag the rendered signature in (or paste with Edit, Paste). If formatting is lost, uncheck "Always match my default message font" and re-paste.
• iOS Mail / Outlook iOS: Mobile clients are trickier, paste into a draft on desktop, copy from the rendered draft, then paste into the iOS signature settings. Direct HTML paste on mobile rarely preserves formatting.

Image Hosting Choices

Two ways to include an image in a signature, each with trade-offs:

• Hosted image URL, the <img src> points to a publicly accessible HTTPS URL. The recipient's mail client fetches the image when they open the message, often after asking permission via the "show images" prompt. Cheap, but every recipient triggers a server request, and tracking pixels riding on signature images is one of the original ways open-rate analytics work.
• Inlined Base64 image, the image is embedded directly in the HTML as a data:image/...;base64,... URI. Survives forwarding cleanly, no external fetch, but bloats every email by the encoded size of the image and gets stripped or warned about by Outlook 2007 to 2019 desktop.

The reliable option for a corporate signature: a hosted HTTPS image at modest size (under 30 KB), with the alt attribute filled in so it degrades to readable text when images are blocked.

Compliance and Legal Requirements

Several jurisdictions legally require specific information in business email signatures:

• UK, the Companies Act 2006 requires limited companies to include the registered company name, registered office address, registration number, and place of registration on business correspondence including email. Sole traders are exempt.
• Germany, the Telemediengesetz (TMG) has similar Impressum requirements: full company name and form, registered address, contact information, registry court and registration number, VAT ID where applicable.
• EU more broadly, GDPR doesn't require contact info in signatures specifically, but a clear way to reach a data controller is part of broader compliance and a signature is a natural place for it.
• Regulated industries, financial services, legal practices, healthcare, and others often require specific disclaimers (confidentiality notices, FCA-style legal disclosures, HIPAA-related warnings). Check your sector's requirements.

Common Mistakes

1. Designing in a website tool and exporting to email. Modern CSS doesn't survive in Outlook desktop. Build for email constraints from the start.
2. Heavy decorative imagery. Every email you send (and every reply someone makes) carries the weight. Aim for <30 KB total signature image weight.
3. Skipping alt text on images. When images are blocked (Outlook desktop's default for external senders), an empty alt collapses the layout. Always set descriptive alt text.
4. Putting all contact info in the image. If a recipient blocks images, they see nothing. Critical info (name, title, phone) must be in HTML text.
5. Long URLs displayed in full. Wrap them in a short link or use anchor text ("LinkedIn") instead of https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname-12345.
6. Quotes, slogans, and motivational lines. Recipients widely report finding these unprofessional.
7. Different signatures across devices. Set the same signature on every device you send mail from, recipients notice the inconsistency on threads where you reply from desktop and mobile.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my signature look different in Outlook than Gmail?

Different rendering engines. Outlook desktop uses Microsoft Word's HTML engine and renders many CSS properties differently from WebKit-based Apple Mail or the engines Gmail web and Outlook 365 web use. The signature this tool produces is built to look acceptable in all of them, never identical, but always recognisably the same signature.

Can I include an animated GIF?

Yes, but Outlook 2007 to 2019 desktop renders animated GIFs as the first frame only. Design the first frame to stand alone, if your animation depends on a sequence to convey meaning, you'll lose half your audience. Gmail, Apple Mail, and Outlook 365 web play GIFs normally.

Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. The signature is built entirely in your browser. Your name, title, contact info, and social URLs go from the form to the preview to the clipboard, never to a server, never to an analytics endpoint, never to a marketing list. Many signature-builder sites monetise by harvesting exactly this contact data; this one doesn't.

Should I include a photo of myself?

Optional. Photos make signatures feel more personal and warm, but they add image weight and trigger the "show images" prompt in many corporate environments. A small (60 to 80 px) headshot tends to land well; a banner-sized photo doesn't. If your role is largely B2C, sales, customer success, recruiting, a photo helps; in heavily B2B contexts, name + title is enough.

What's the legal disclaimer some companies use?

Common in regulated industries (finance, law, healthcare): "This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the addressee. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete it." Whether it's legally enforceable is debated by lawyers, but it's standard practice in many sectors. UK companies legally need to include their registered name, registered office, registration number, and place of registration on business correspondence per the Companies Act 2006.

Can I have different signatures for different replies?

Most major clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail) let you create multiple signatures and pick which one is used as the default for new messages and which (often a shorter version) for replies and forwards. Build both with this tool and assign each to its slot in the client's settings.

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