Create a Personal Email Signature in 5 Popular Services

Set it up in free Apple iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Proton Mail and Yahoo! Mail accounts

a laptop with emails and email signatures

GETTY IMAGES

Marc Saltzman,

AARP

En español

Published April 14, 2023

Look at the bottom of the emails you receive in your inbox. Most of them probably have a neat, personalized signature, sometimes called a footer.

These typically include the sender’s name, title or occupation, company affiliation, phone, email and maybe a social media handle. At a time when artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming the norm, personalized email signatures can assure recipients that you are a real person rather than an AI bot.

Some people like to personalize their signatures with photos, company logos or even animated gifs. You’ll see some folks spelling out their preferred pronouns — she/her, they/them — or including an honorific such as Ms., the Honorable or Esquire.

You can even use the space to indicate the correct pronunciation of your name, such as “MEG-ann” for Meaghan. And if you’re so inclined, you can add a motivational quote, for example: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” —Mahatma Ghandi. This can say a lot about you and your interests.

Email signatures are a breeze to set up on a computer or mobile app regardless of which email provider you use.

Apple’s iCloud signatures are plain text only

1. Sign in to iCloud.com with your Apple ID and password.

2. Open Mail and click the Settings icon ⚙︎ | Preferences.

3. Click Composing | Add a signature and name it.

4. Type your signature text in the field provided.

5. Click Done.

The Apple Mail app on your Mac or Windows computer provides more formatting possibilities, but you’ll have to be adept at using keyboard commands to take advantage of them.

1. At the upper left on your desktop or laptop, choose Mail | Preferences | Signatures. Click the plus sign + at the bottom of the middle column, and give your new signature a name.

2. In the right column, you’ll notice no formatting features, but you can depress the command, shift and plus + keys simultaneously to increase the size of your type. If you want a link in your signature to go to a web page or social media account, you can hit the command and k keys at the same time so a window will pop up and you can insert the correct URL. If you want an image, you can click on the file in one of your folders, drag it into the pane you’re working on, and drag it around to place it as you desire.

You also can format it as you desire in a word processing program, then copy and paste it into that right column in Apple Mail. The formatting and images should appear correctly in the window.

3. Uncheck the box that says Place signature above quoted text if you want your formatted signature to be at the end of your message. Uncheck the Always match my default message font box if you’ve embellished on the standard 12-point Helvetica formatting.

4. If you find that All Signatures is highlighted after you’ve finished your work, drag the title of your new signature in the middle column to the email account name in the left column. You’ll see the number below your email account change from 0 signatures to 1 signature.

5. Make sure that account is highlighted, and using the pull-down arrows to the right of the Choose Signature box, select the name of your signature. Your work saves automatically. When you create new mail in the account, you’ll see your handiwork.

a screenshot showing a gmail email signature

Once you find the Signature: setting near the bottom of a long page in Gmail’s General tab, you can create a new signature and design it in the box to the right, adding icons, links and a quote to help you stand out in a job search or reflect your personality.

AARP

Gmail offers flexibility with images, icons

1. Sign in to your Gmail account with your email address and password. At the top right, click Settings ⚙︎ | See all settings.

2. Scroll down to the Signature section, click the + Create new button and give a name to your signature.

3. Add your signature text in the box. Google says you can have up to 10,000 characters, but it’s best to keep things simple. You can personalize your signature information with an image, such as an envelope icon ✉️ before your email address or a LinkedIn logo to lead people to your page. Or you can change the text style.

4. Choose where you want your signature to appear: only for new emails, or also for replies and forwarded emails.

5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.

Like other providers, Gmail lets you edit or delete your signature and assign different signatures for personal, work or other purposes. While you’re writing an email, you also can add a previously saved signature by clicking the Insert signature pen icon at the bottom of the window.

Outlook’s instructions change with the platform

1. Sign in to your Outlook.com account.

2. Click the gear icon ⚙︎ at the top right, and select View all Outlook settings.

3. Click Compose and reply and scroll down to Email signature.

4. Click the plus sign + beside New signature and key in your information. You’ll see font options, such as sizes, colors, bold and italics.

5. To add a picture, click the picture symbol at the bottom left of the signature window and import a photo from your computer. Use your mouse or touch pad to adjust the size and position of the image as needed.

6. To have your information appear automatically when you start an email, check the box beside Automatically include my signature on new messages I compose. Otherwise, you can manually select the signature each time.

7. Click Save.

Outlook.com, the free web-based client, doesn’t allow more than one signature per account. But the Outlook app that’s a part of the Microsoft 365 office suite does.

On Windows machines:

1. Open a new email message, then look for the Message tab across the top of the window that opened.

2. Look for the caret after the word Signature v that designates a pull-down menu. Then choose Signatures… | New and give your new signature a name.

3. Compose your signature in the Edit signature window, which allows you to format in ways similar to Outlook email. You can also create your perfect email signature in Word, then copy and paste it into the window.

Click the link in the lower left corner to see some signature templates on Microsoft’s website. If you like a look, you can customize one in Word or paste it into the signature window. You can delete elements, such as a photo, that you might not want.

4. Click the Save button when you’re done. Make sure to designate the signature as the default for new messages and perhaps replies and forwarded emails so that it will come up automatically as you create or respond to the email in your inbox.

On a Macintosh computer:

1. Open a new email message. In the ribbon at the top under Messages, select Signature v | Signatures.

2. Click the plus sign + below the left column, create a name for your signature and hit the Edit button.

3. The window that opens looks very much like an email message, with familiar formatting tools up top. Design it the way you want.

4. Don’t forget to save your work. The icon in the blue bar at the top of the window that looks like an old floppy disk 💾 is your Save button. Now you can close the window by clicking the X in a red circle in the upper left corner of your screen. Choose your default signature for new messages and replies or forwarded emails before closing the Signatures screen the same way.

To remove or edit a signature in the future, you can follow this same path.

Proton Mail’s free account inserts an ad

1. Click the gear icon ⚙︎ at the top of the screen in your Proton Mail account | Go to settings. Under the Proton Mail section in the left column, choose Identity and addresses.

2. Type in your desired text and formatting in the Signature box. You can add a photo by clicking on the picture icon and importing one from your hard drive, and you can resize and reposition it. You also can copy your signature from a word processing program and paste it into the box by pressing the command and p keys simultaneously. Your formatting will transfer.

3. Click the Update button when you’re done. At the bottom of Proton’s free accounts, you’ll see a sentence with a link to the email provider’s website. You can remove it in the $9.99 a month paid plan.

Yahoo! Mail has a toggle switch to turn on

1. Sign in to your Yahoo! Mail account.

2. Click the blue Settings ⚙︎ icon toward the top right of the screen | ⋯ More Settings.

3. Click Writing email in the left rail.

4. Under Signature, click the toggle button beside your email address to enable a signature. You’ll know that it’s enabled if the toggle button is blue and the white notch is to the right.

5. Add or paste your signature in the text box. You won’t see any button to hit when you’re done.

When you hit the Compose button on your next email, you’ll see your new email signature.

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Marc Saltzman is a contributing writer who covers personal technology. He hosts the podcast series Tech It Out and is the author of several books, including the upcoming Apple Vision Pro for Dummies.