Tips on how to get started with designing a Signature
To be able to view your signature correctly on most email platforms we have the following guidelines to get you started. This will ensure that your beautifully designed signatures will display nicely on different email platforms as well as on mobile devices.
Important - We do recommend that you spend some time testing how your signatures will appear on different email clients before you publish your signature.
Simple layouts are best:
- Keep it simple by using a single column to incorporate all your contact details
- Use basic HTML tables, using CCS floating and layout techniques
- Avoid using padding or margins and background colours
- Be aware that text and font styles may not be available on different devices or email clients
- Avoid using Microsoft Office for drafting up your signature design - copying and pasting from Microsoft will copy over the formatting as well which will cause issues.
Design for Mobile Usage:
- Most emails are being read on mobile devices so ensure you design with this in mind.
- Keep the width less than 600 pixels to ensure your design is readable when scaled down for each device - this allows the email to display correctly in most email clients.
Adding Images:
- Check your file size - try to keep the size of your image less than 10KB as this will ensure the images will download quickly for the end user and won't cause delivery issues.
- Ensure all your images have 'alt' attributes - this will keep the overall sizing of your images the same across email platforms.
- Instead of 'float' tags use 'align'
- Animate Gifs are compatible with most email clients.
- Spammers use large images instead of text (ensure you use a 60/40 text to image ratio)
Adding Videos:
- Try not to use Videos - if you must than use an image and link the image to a URL to direct your recipient to a web browser to view the video.
We have a range of great 'How to' articles by our Marketing Team published in Everything email Crossware blogs:-
How to create the perfect email signature?
Tips for creating a company email signature with examples
Improve your Company iPhone email signature
Email design stand out of the box