Email sign-offs

A handwritten signature image in your email sign-off.

A small script signature above your typed name and title makes a sign-off feel personal without hurting professionalism. Generate it in the tool at a modest size, then add it to Gmail or Outlook in a minute.

The right export settings for email

  • Canvas: about 300–420 px wide and 100–140 px tall in the generator (the 2× export gives you 600–840 px, which mail clients scale down crisply).
  • Style: a mid-weight script — Dancing Script, Caveat or Sacramento. Hairline styles vanish at small sizes; heavy flourishes look like a logo.
  • Ink: deep blue or black. Coloured ink in email reads as a marketing graphic, not a signature.
  • Background: keep the transparent PNG if your mail may be read in dark mode — but check how it looks: dark ink on a dark background disappears. If most of your readers use dark mode, a white-background version (export with a tiny KB cap to trigger the JPEG, or place the PNG on white) is the safer choice. Test by sending one message to yourself with dark mode on.

Adding it in Gmail

  1. Open Gmail → Settings (gear) → "See all settings" → General tab → Signature.
  2. Create a signature, type your name, title and contact lines.
  3. Place the cursor on the line above your typed name, click the Insert Image icon, and upload the PNG.
  4. Click the inserted image and choose "Small" or "Medium" so it sits at roughly 120–180 px wide.
  5. Set the signature defaults for new emails and replies, then Save Changes at the bottom.

Adding it in Outlook

  1. Outlook on the web: Settings → Mail → Compose and reply → Email signature.
  2. Type your text lines, then use the picture icon to insert the PNG and resize it by dragging a corner.
  3. Choose it as the default for new messages and replies, and save.
  4. In desktop Outlook the same flow lives under File → Options → Mail → Signatures.

Menu names drift slightly between versions — if an item is not where you expect, search the settings panel for "signature"; both clients keep image insertion inside the signature editor itself.

Good manners for signature images

Keep the image small in file size (under ~50 KB) so you are not attaching dead weight to every reply in a long thread, never make the image the only place your name or contact details appear (images get blocked; your typed name must be text), and skip the handwritten image entirely for very formal first-contact mail where a plain text sign-off is the convention. A guide to choosing the style itself is on the styles page.

Why does my signature image show as an attachment?

Some clients display embedded images as attachments in the message list even though they render inline in the body. Keeping the file small and inserting it through the signature editor (rather than pasting into a draft) minimises this.

Should my email signature image match my paper signature?

It does not need to — an email sign-off is a design element, not a specimen signature. Many people deliberately use a slightly different, tidier version for email.