How to Create an Email Signature with Image

In a previous post, I showed you how to create a signature in Windows Mail. Adding an image to an email signature is a little trickier as it requires a little html editing.

My email signature and image.

By far, the best tutorial I have ever seen is one done by Rich Menga. I suppose I could spend hours and hours and create my own video, but I think Rich’s is very well done and I refer back to it from time to time.

Rich explains how to create an email image signature in Windows Mail, but these same steps can certainly be applied to other email clients. The key is editing the html file to which the signature is saved.

Email Signature With Image In Windows Live Mail by pcmedianet

Certainly the most difficult aspect of this task is correctly inserting the signature image code in place of the existing cid code. Once the code is inserted, the image is sent as an attachment.

This is the original “img src” code in the email signature text file:

And this is the altered “img src” code. It is imperative that you insert the ENTIRE directory path and insert it with the quotation marks.

Here are some tips for best results:

• Keep the image small, less than 30KB. My own image is 13KB. On most Internet connections, the email image downloads quickly into the recipient’s inbox and does not make their hard drive spin like crazy to view it. So keep the image as small as possible or else your email (and business, in some cases) will be as welcome as allergies in austin, believe me. Keep the picture small.
• Crop the image closely. Avoid vast areas of white space all around your image. This white space serves only to fill up the image with excessive “weight” while providing nothing of value. Crop the white space out of your image.
• Use a logo. Avoid complicated, color-rich photos or other graphically-saturated images in email. A simple logo makes the point very quickly, giving the recipient a satisfactory first impression.
• When copying your image directory information to your html text file, make sure you have the entire directory path. If you neglect even the “jpg” at the end of the tag, the image will not show properly in the email. So if you discover that your image is not displaying properly in your email signature, re-check the “img src” tag in the html file to ensure it is inserted correctly.

I cannot emphasize enough how important a logo is to a clean, professional-looking signature. If you feel you do not have the time or talent to craft your own, consult with a web designer. I purchased mine from Stacy at BloggingBellaDesigns. Her price was incredibly reasonable, and she did an amazing job for me.