[Update]: This article was updated on March 5, 2020.
NOTE: This article explains how to deploy an HTML email signature with images on a single iPhone device. To learn how to manage HTML email signatures on multiple iPhones connected to Office 365 or Microsoft Exchange accounts, consult this guide.
The default iPhone email signature – ‘sent from my iPhone’ – has by now become a sort of a running joke among users. While some people claim that using it is a good idea because it explains potential typos and suggest the person is out of office, the truth is that email signatures can do so much more. With a well-designed HTML email signature, you can promote your brand, let the recipients know of your latest offers, and maintain the highest level of professionalism. So instead of adding “sorry for my fat fingers” to your default signature, read on to see how to create a professional email signature with images in the default mail app on iPhone.
Create an HTML email signature with links and images
The first step is to create your own HTML email signature. The easiest way to do that is to use the free email signature generator.
Leave the platform as the default, choose a template that suits your needs and follow the generator to personalize contact data, social media links and graphics. When you’re finished, click Apply your signature:
And then, copy your signature to the clipboard:
Next, use any email client to send your new email signature to your iPhone. Simply paste the signature you’ve copied to your email message and send it. In the example below, I’m using Gmail:
Set up HTML email signature on iPhone
After you send the email with your new signature, open this email in your Apple Mail app. Press and hold on a part of text that is not a link, then choose Select All and Copy from the context menu:
Go to the iPhone settings (Settings App > Mail > Signature). If you already have an email signature configured – delete it, press and hold until the context menu appears, and select Paste. After you have pasted the email signature into the editor, you will notice that it lost its original formatting and has been slightly altered. This is because your iPhone automatically added its own coding to the HTML source of the signature. Shake your iPhone to trigger the Undo Change Attributes context menu and select Undo. This will remove additional undesired formatting introduced by your iPhone.
Go to your iPhone Mail app and initiate a new message (it should already contain the new signature).
Remember to test the new email signature internally before sending any business emails!
Create email signatures for everyone in your company
This manual method of adding email signatures is good if you only have your email signature to take care of. However, it takes a lot of time and effort if you manage signatures for all users and their devices in your company.
If you want to have HTML signatures added automatically for all users regardless of which email client or mobile device they use to send emails, check out our signature management tools.
I have created a signature for apple mail using the generator and it displays correctly on my iPhone after shaking it and undo attributes but it doesn’t display correctly on my iPad as it doesn’t allow you to shake it to change attributes,any solutions to this problem.
Thanks Steve
You can try enabling “shake to undo” on your iPad.
It should be accessible in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Shake to Undo
I have an issue with the resizing of the images and text in my signature – after sending myself an email to test it, it looks perfect on the desktop but the text is tiny on the phone and one of the images is too large. There are two images in total, and the code for sizing both is the same… any ideas?
Hi Joe,
Did you remember to use the Undo change attributes option when pasting your signature into the signature editor?
Thank you very much.
I didn’t know either the UNDO functionality. Very helpful!
That was amazing, thank you very much.
I never knew I could use HTML signature on my iPhone apple mail! Now I can respond to all the emails I receive through my website through my phone without having to go back to my heavy laptop!!
I did exactly as you described above and it works like a charm!
For others who have several images in their signature, please note you need to give it a few seconds until it loads all the images. Good luck! 🙂
I try sending the email after pasting in the signature box, which the logo shows in the setting, but when i send the email it just shows a blank spot where the logo should be. Says “banner” and has an icon, but no image?
It looks like you have used a shareable link to your image. Take a look at this article to see how to get a direct URL to your image.
You made some decent points there. I looked on the internet for the issue and found most persons will go along with with your blog.
Enjoyed reading through this, very good stuff, appreciate it.
When i send an email from my iOS device the background is white and the text is black but my phone is on dark mode. When i view it in Outlook the white background is not there. Is this an Apple issue?
At the moment, iOS’s dark mode doesn’t apply to the body of emails. What you see is probably the default white background, which can change in Outlook’s dark mode. Learn more about email signatures and dark mode.
Hi, I followed the instructions but my signature is still not working after undoing the changes. The image is supposed to go before the text but it shows on top of it. What can I do?
It seems like a problem with the HTML code. The quickest way to handle it is to use one of the templates from our free email signature generator.
Hi I’m trying this on my phone and when shaking it says undo paste instead of undo change attributes. How can we fix this? Thank you
Which iPhone are you using? Lack of the Undo change attributes option suggests that in this case, no formatting changes were applied. Does the signature look right?
Awesome! Worked like a charm. And that shake the phone for a context menu? I’ve had an iPhone with my company for 6 years and that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that trick. Brilliant and thanks so much.
If you are having problems with the image, make sure it is less than 8Kb in size, it will not work otherwise, the iphone will not allow a larger image
Hi,
I would like to add the Image centrally in office365, so that this image is sent out in all mails (exchange, owa and mobile also). can you help me without using third party tools? CAn we use the disclaimer and how to generate the HTML code?
Hi,
The article How to create company-wide email signatures and disclaimers in Office 365, will provide you with detailed instructions on how to set up such an email signature and disclaimer. The easiest way to generate the HTML code for your signature is by using Free Email Signature Generator. Just choose Exchange Online as your platform and follow the instructions.
I have an email signature set up with a linked image. It works great across all devices, EXCEPT when someone receives my email and REPLIES to it, the image in my signature attaches as an attachment. Do you know of any way to fix that? Here is the code I’m using for that image:
Hi Shannon,
Linked images should not become attachments – that is one of the differences between linked and embedded images. Could you please specify how you insert the image into your email signature?
HI Pawel,
I was able to copy my signature and it works fine, however the information is crunched together and does not look the same as when I send from my desktop. Any suggestions?
Hi Jane, Did you remember to undo changes as per step 6?
Hello
Thank you for your useful guides
But would you tell me how to have my signature with the image in an IMAP?! Coz when shake in an IMAP signature settings, the undo action clear every thing and not changing the format!
Hi Mahboob, Most IMAP accounts have built-in email signatures. For example, see this article about setting up an email signature in Gmail: https://www.mail-signatures.com/articles/how-to-add-or-change-an-email-signature-in-gmailgoogle-apps/?sts=4145. Where is your IMAP account hosted?
I tried shaking it, and nothing happened. No “undo” option available.
Hi! Do you have Shake to undo enabled? You can check in Settings, Accessibility.
This unfortunately did not work at all in my iPhone 5C. I have ios version 10.0.2
Following these directions worked perfectly, until I closed and reopened the email app. Then the images were gone again.
I have linked the logo image to my website, but all that did was make it a click-able button that took me to my website. Can you please explain to me what you mean by, “the image has to be linked (i.e. located on a public web server and downloaded from there)” and how do you do this?
I also need this work for PCs and Macs.
PS….I am a graphic designer who knows very little about coding.
Thanks!
Hi Destini, What you have to do is upload your image to an online image hosting service, e.g. one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photo_sharing_websites. Then, paste the image into your signature as per this article (make sure to do this in an internet browser): https://www.mail-signatures.com/articles/how-to-insert-images-into-office-365-email-signatures/
As to PCs and Macs, in this article you will find links to all email signature setup guides you should need: https://www.mail-signatures.com/articles/signature-templates/guide-with-images/
Why do I have to link the image to an online web hosting site? Why can’t I just embed it as I do on my MAC?
That’s because this email client doesn’t support embedded graphics in email signatures.
Hi Pawel,
I got a problem. I don’t have any website. I want to create a email signature that will open in all kind of devices.
The basic problem is –
*1. I cant understand how I link my photo/logo in html code, because i don’t have any website.
2. Is it necessary to link social media icons as like my photo for clicking?
3. Can I use a html email signature in all platform & devices?
4. Its necessary to design a psd esignature template to convert in to html.
My qurey become to long.
Pls try to give those answer but most importent is my 1st question.
Waiting for your valuable reply.
Thanks,
Sumitra
Hi Sumitra,
From your email address I can see that you are using Gmail, so this article should have all the info you need (including how to link a photo): https://www.mail-signatures.com/articles/how-to-add-or-change-an-email-signature-in-gmailgoogle-apps/?sts=4145
Let me know if it helps.
Your directions are so clear, thank you!
However, i paste into Signature and then ‘undo changed attributes’ then go to the Gmail app and initiate a new email BUT the sig is not there.
So, I opened the “Mail” app, that is the standard iphone generic thing that contains icloud, Gmail and and any other emails set up on the phone, then to “Accounts” then gmail, then start a new mail (icon, bottom right) , a new mails starts and the signature is there.
As per directions, I “cancel” the email but this cancels the mail outright and does not give me a “save to drafts” the way the Gmail app does. Any help is appreciated. 🙂
Hi Ralph,
I haven’t tested the solution with the gmail app, so I can’t comment on the issue.
As to saving to drafts – make sure to provide a recipient address in the email (as if you were actually going to send it) and only then tap cancel/trash.
Does anyone know how to add a HTML signature in the outlook iOS iPhone app? Everytime I copy and paste it into the app my signature is appearing in plain text.
Did you ever get it to work? I had it working in Apple mail but it refuse to work in Outlook for IOS!
None of this works! The image always breaks and does not “hold” in drafts, in my signature, etc. It only works a couple of times. So frustrating when trying to brand your logo and using my email from my Iphone 50% of the time!
Hi Augie, What type of image are you using – linked or embedded? A linked image (https://www.mail-signatures.com/articles/images-in-email-signatures-linked-or-embedded/) should hold in the signature.
Is it mandatory to copy the signature from the message saved in drafts EACH time we send a message so as not to loose the image? This is not usable…
Hi Antonio, No, the image should “stay” in the signature. Are you using a linked or embedded picture?
Brilliant! Thanks so much for the effort behind this. No color changes / hyperlinkedness on phone number and web address. Clean. Thank you
I hv one problem one of the imgaes from the i phone into gmail . But when i open inbox its shows the ”’line imges ””. But its blanck and not able to save and download can u plz help me out of this
Hi
This works for me, but the image is very small, not the same size as when I use Gmail to send it. It looks like the iPhone shrinks the image…
Pieter
Hi Pieter,
That’s correct – if an image is too wide, your iPhone will scale it to fit the screen.
Best regards,
Pawel
This works great for me… except the text of my emails (not the signature) now arrives in Times New Roman, which is not particularly attractive. Is there any way to get around this?
Thanks!
Hi Steve,
This could be caused by an error in your email signature code (even a minor one, like a missing closing tag). I’d start with reviewing it. Alternatively, use one of our free templates (https://www.mail-signatures.com/signature-templates/) instead of your current one.
Best regards,
Pawel
Was “playing around” since a while with this issue. Would have never figured out this simple solution without your article.
Thanks a LOT!
Hi Pawel,
I face similar problem as Reg
I followed your indication as above, but still images are not coming
On first time only it came, but now lost everywhere, in signature n also in draft
Pl suggest
Look forward for your guidance
Signature is as below FYR
Best Regards
Kandarp Soni
logo123
120/SB, Avishkar Complex, Old Padra Road, Vadodara – 390 007
Mb: +91 9924533699
Ph: 0265-2330727 / 25
http://www.heatranzsolutions.com
dist
Hi Kandarp,
Sorry for not replying sooner. I will test this next week and get back with the result.
Best regards,
Pawel
ok, it looks like there are 2 requirements that need to be fulfilled: the image has to be linked (i.e. located on a public web server and downloaded from there) and the message from which we copy the signature with the image must be saved to drafts and not deleted. I’ve added this info in steps 1 and 7 of the article.
Actually now everything is working fine except for the image .. Which still shows up as a blank box … Sigh!!
Hi Reg,
This Apple Support forum thread seems to discuss a similar issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5996947?start=0&tstart=0. One of the suggested solutions is saving the email with the email signature in Drafts on your iPhone (to do this begin to forward the message, but instead of sending just save it), and copying from there i.e. carrying on from step 3 of my walkthrough.
Let me know if this works for you.
Best regards,
Pawel
hi I’ve tried everything you said and I still cant get my signature to work
Hi Linda, What iOS version are you using?
I have looked at multiple solutions for this problem and finally I have found one that works like a charm without the need of any third party apps!!! Thank you so much
There is no customization of fonts or spacing. Most orgs have specific graphic defaults concerning their use of images and fonts, This is nice but weak.
Hi Rich,
Our signature generator allows you to customize fonts. You can always fine-tune the HTML code before applying it to the signature, or use a solution which includes a professional email signature template editor.