Trying to create an email signature with logo without having an attachment

Question

Level 1

12 points

Trying to create an email signature with logo without having an attachment

I'm trying to create a email signature for Apple Mail that includes a logo but does not require it to be included as an attachment.

Can an html signature achieve this? And if so, any ideas how to make it?

Thanks in advance,

-Tom

MacBook Pro (Early 2008) / 3G IPhone v 2.2, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Apr 25, 2009 2:22 AM

Reply

Answer 1

X_console

Level 1

124 points

Apr 25, 2009 4:53 AM in response to TegarKC

Someone posted a hint about this just a few days ago: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=200904200814240

Reply

Answer 2

TegarKC Author

Level 1

12 points

May 7, 2009 4:56 PM in response to X_console

Thanks. What I'm really looking for is just to add a graphic, i.e. logo to my signature without having it appear as an attachment for those who received it. It doesn't need to have a hyperlink included.

I think, but am not sure that what I'm looking for is a what to sent html using the Mail app.

Message was edited by: TegarKC

Reply

Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,252 points

May 7, 2009 5:04 PM in response to TegarKC

There is nothing you can do. email is a text only protocol. Non-text items are just encoded text that is sent along on the text protocol.

How the signature is displayed is dependent on how your recipients' configure their email client.
If the recipient email client doesn't know how to handle the way Mail sets up that encoding, it will just show up as an attachment. If they have their client to display text-only, for instance, they will get the signature picture as an attachment.

Reply

Answer 4

TegarKC Author

Level 1

12 points

May 7, 2009 5:33 PM in response to Barney-15E

Barry,

Thanks for responding but I guess I'm confused be cause I get commercial emails quite frequently that have graphics embedded in them yet they don't appear to be attachments (I.e. having the paperclip symbol assigned to them).

What comes to mind immediately is the email alerts I get from my local newspaper.

Hoe do they include images such as there logo without the paperclip symbol assigned?

Reply

Answer 5

dbsneddon

Level 4

1,542 points

May 7, 2009 6:25 PM in response to TegarKC

TegarKC wrote:
Barry,

Thanks for responding but I guess I'm confused be cause I get commercial emails quite frequently that have graphics embedded in them yet they don't appear to be attachments (I.e. having the paperclip symbol assigned to them).

That is because you have your email client configured to handle html content
in email... I have my email clients configured to not render any html content
in emails (I hate it).

What comes to mind immediately is the email alerts I get from my local newspaper.

Hoe do they include images such as there logo without the paperclip symbol assigned?

As already explained, email is a text protocol so any non-text content is
encoded as text. What happens with it at the other end will depend on how
the recipient has configured their email client.

Dave

Reply

Answer 6

TegarKC Author

Level 1

12 points

May 7, 2009 7:25 PM in response to dbsneddon

Dave,

While I appreciate your distaste for html emails I'm just looking for some help here.

(I don't want to offend you or anyone else on this or any other discussion board but so many times in these discussion sites people talk about their personal opinions rather than offering assistance and it gets frustrating when someone is seeking help.)

You say that it is dependent on how the recipient's email is set. I can understand that. My email is set to accept/read html messages as most people I know do.

Again, I'm trying to figure out how I can create a signature that uses html within Mail if that is what is needed to achieve my set goal. If the recipient chooses not to have their machine set to see the html then so be it.

But as noted I get html messages. But when I've added a logo to my signature the paper clip shows up and that is what I'm trying to avoid.

If this is not possible to do in Mail then so be it. But if so I'm just looking for some help.

Message was edited by: TegarKC

Message was edited by: TegarKC

Reply

Answer 7

dbsneddon

Level 4

1,542 points

May 7, 2009 8:03 PM in response to TegarKC

TegarKC wrote:
Dave,

While I appreciate your distaste for html emails I'm just looking for some help here.

(I don't want to offend you or anyone else on this or any other discussion board but so many times in these discussion sites people talk about their personal opinions rather than offering assistance and it gets frustrating when someone is seeking help.)

No offense taken.

You say that it is dependent on how the recipient's email is set. I can understand that. My email is set to accept/read html messages as most people I know do.

Again, I'm trying to figure out how I can create a signature that uses html within Mail if that is what is needed to achieve my set goal. If the recipient chooses not to have their machine set to see the html then so be it.

But as noted I get html messages. But when I've added a logo to my signature the paper clip shows up and that is what I'm trying to avoid.

OK, how exactly are you "adding a logo" to your signature?
What steps do you take to achieve this?
(Note: I don't use Apple Mail but use Thunderbird.)
Where does the paperclip show up?
If you send email to yourself, do you get the paperclip?
If you sent me an email (address in my profile) would I see it as an attachment?
Are all recipients getting the paperclip?

If this is not possible to do in Mail then so be it. But if so I'm just looking for some help.

I am trying to help...
As far as an html signature, you can certainly put some html in there to point
to an image that is available from a server somewhere

The following text generated the image above...
<img src="/___sbsstatic___/migration-images/943/9435292-1.jpg" />

Reply

Answer 8

May 12, 2009 9:58 AM in response to TegarKC

Tom,

The response posted on April 25 includes a link to a tip that works great. Here's a step by step:

1) From your graphics program (Illustrator or Photoshop) use Save for Web to save your image as a PNG-24 with transparency.
2) In Apple Mail, click New Message or use Cmd-N to open a new message window.
3) Drag and drop your PNG logo into the message window. If you need to make it larger or smaller, go back to step 1 and resize before saving again.
4) Add your text above and below your logo (your name, phone number, etc) and style it however you'd like (bold, color, etc).
5) When you have your signature block the way you'd like it, copy it all.
6) Open Preferences and click on Signatures.
7) Click the plus sign to create a new signature.
8) In the signature box on the right, select all, then paste your signature in place.
9) Close the Preferences window to save.

That should do it.

Reply

Answer 9

TegarKC Author

Level 1

12 points

May 12, 2009 10:36 AM in response to Ed Phoenix

Thanks but that did not work.

I used Photoshop and saved the logo as a PNG-24 with transparency as you suggested but the logo still appears as an attachment to the email.

Reply

Answer 10

May 12, 2009 5:20 PM in response to TegarKC

Here is the steps I took to successfully create a signature with logo.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050706181449478

I think the secret is hosting the logo somewhere (like a a personal webhosting account in a regular directory) that allows the image to hotlinked (webhost allows image to be linked and not being called in an html file in the same directory/domain/host).

Chris

Reply