How to Create a Professional Email Signature

Your email signature is the business card you hand over in every email you send. A good one tells people who you are, how to reach you, and why to trust you, in about three lines. A bad one gets broken images, wraps awkwardly on phones, or ends up in the spam folder.

This guide shows you how to create a professional email signature that looks right in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail, on desktop and on mobile. You can make one for free in under two minutes with our email signature generator.

What to include in a professional email signature

The best signatures answer three questions at a glance: who is this, where do they work, and how do I reach them? Everything else is optional.

1. 01

   Full name

   The way you want to be addressed. Add pronouns if you like.
2. 02

   Job title

   Short and clear. "Head of Customer Support" beats an internal title nobody outside understands.
3. 03

   Company name

   Linked to your website if you can.
4. 04

   One or two contact details

   Usually a phone number and website. Your email address is already in the "From" line.
5. 05

   A photo or logo (optional)

   A headshot builds trust in sales and support. A logo works better for shared inboxes.
6. 06

   Social links (optional)

   Only the ones you actively use. LinkedIn is the safe default for business.
7. 07

   One call to action (optional)

   "Book a demo", "Chat with us on WhatsApp", "Read our latest case study". One, not three.
8. 08

   Legal disclaimer (only if required)

   Some industries and countries require one. Keep it small and at the very bottom.

What to leave out

• Inspirational quotes. They date fast and say nothing about your business.
• Multiple phone numbers, fax numbers and addresses. Pick the one people actually use.
• Large banners and animated GIFs. They bloat every email, often get blocked, and can trigger spam filters.
• An image of your whole signature. If your signature is one big picture, it disappears when images are blocked, can't be read by screen readers, and the text can't be copied or tapped.
• Your email address, unless you're signing for a shared inbox and want replies to go elsewhere.

Email signature design rules that work in every inbox

Email clients are far stricter than web browsers. Outlook on Windows uses Microsoft Word's rendering engine, Gmail strips many styles, and dark mode can recolour everything. These rules keep your signature intact:

1. 01

   Use tables, not divs or flexbox

   Table-based layout is the only approach Outlook, Gmail and Apple Mail all render consistently.
2. 02

   Put styles inline

   Gmail and many other clients drop <style> blocks. Every colour, size and spacing value should sit in a style="" attribute on the element itself.
3. 03

   Stick to web-safe fonts

   Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Georgia. Your brand font won't load in most inboxes, so pick the closest safe match.
4. 04

   One accent colour

   Use it for your name or a divider line. Use dark grey (not pure black) for body text, so it adapts better in dark mode.
5. 05

   Host images on a public https:// URL

   Use your website, company CDN or another public host, and set explicit width and height. Keep photos and logos small, around 80–120px wide.
6. 06

   Keep it under 10,000 characters

   Gmail rejects longer signatures, and heavy HTML slows every email you send.
7. 07

   Make links and phone numbers tappable

   Use tel: links for phone numbers and full https:// links for websites, so they work with one tap on mobile.

You don't need to write any of this HTML yourself. Our free email signature generator builds table-based, inline-styled signatures with four layouts (classic, modern, compact and minimal), web-safe fonts, social icons, a call-to-action button and an optional disclaimer.

How to create your email signature (step by step)

1. Open the email signature generator. It's free, with no sign-up and no watermark.
2. Fill in your details: name, title, company, phone, website and any social links you want to show.
3. Add a photo or logo by pasting a public https:// image link.
4. Choose a layout, font and accent colour. The live preview updates as you type.
5. Click "Copy signature". This copies the rendered signature, not the raw code, ready to paste into your email client.

Your details are saved in your own browser, so you can come back later to tweak them or make a matching signature for a colleague.

How to add an email signature in Gmail

1. Copy your signature from the generator.
2. In Gmail, click the gear icon → See all settings, and stay on the General tab.
3. Scroll to Signature and click Create new. Give it a name.
4. Click inside the signature box and paste (Ctrl + V on Windows, Cmd + V on Mac).
5. Under Signature defaults, choose it for new emails and for replies/forwards.
6. Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.

How to add an email signature in Outlook

New Outlook and Outlook on the web

1. Copy your signature from the generator.
2. Go to Settings (gear icon) → Account → Signatures.
3. Click New signature, name it, and paste into the editor.
4. Choose it as the default for new messages and replies/forwards, then click Save.

Classic Outlook for Windows

1. Go to File → Options → Mail → Signatures.
2. Click New, name the signature, and paste it into the edit box.
3. Set the defaults on the right, then click OK.

Send yourself a test email afterwards to check that images and links come through.

How to add an email signature in Apple Mail

1. Copy your signature from the generator.
2. In Mail, open Mail → Settings (called Preferences on older macOS) → Signatures.
3. Select your email account on the left and click + to add a signature.
4. Untick "Always match my default message font", otherwise Mail will strip your fonts and colours.
5. Paste the signature into the right-hand panel and close the window.

On iPhone and iPad, go to Settings → Apps → Mail → Signature. The iOS signature editor handles only basic formatting, so a simple, text-led layout works best there.

Troubleshooting common email signature problems

My photo or logo doesn't show. The image must be hosted at a public https:// address that loads without logging in. Images uploaded from your computer, pasted from your clipboard, or stored in private cloud folders often turn into attachments or broken icons for recipients.

The layout breaks in Outlook. Your signature was probably built with divs or CSS that Outlook ignores. Rebuild it with a table-based generator, and paste the rendered signature rather than raw HTML.

My signature looks different on mobile. Long lines wrap on small screens. Keep each line short and avoid wide side-by-side layouts with lots of text in the second column. The compact and minimal layouts are designed for this.

Colours look wrong in dark mode. Some clients invert colours in dark mode. Use mid-tone accent colours and dark grey text rather than pure black, and use logos with a transparent background, or a white one with padding.

Formatting disappears when I paste. Make sure you used "Copy signature" (the rendered version), not "Copy HTML". In Apple Mail, untick "Always match my default message font" before pasting.

Make yours now

A professional email signature takes two minutes and pays off in every email you send. Open the free email signature generator, fill in your details, and paste the result into your email client.