Illustration: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

People place all sorts of images in e-mail signatures. In organizations, the inserted image is typically a logo, an advertizement or a promotional image. Sometimes it'south a photograph or stylized prototype of the sender. Images in personal e-mail signatures often signal something about the person or the person's interests.

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If you use Gmail, you may upload an prototype or insert an image from the web or Google Drive into your signature. And if you apply Gmail as part of Google Workspace, an ambassador can configure a signature—including an prototype—that appends to all outgoing e-mail, likewise. But whatever image an ambassador includes must be available at a public web link, then the steps below depict how to go your image onto a Google Site in club to obtain a public link.

But earlier you add whatever epitome into your signature, allow me add together a annotation of caution. In full general, I recommend people proceed electronic mail signatures text-only. Text is much more attainable to people with depression or no vision than an image in a signature. Too, text uses far less bandwidth than an image. (Make certain to resize and/or compress your image to appropriate dimensions and quality.) That said, there are many times when an image in a Gmail signature may exist merited.

How to add an epitome in a personal Gmail business relationship signature

To add, edit or manage signatures in a personal Gmail account:

  1. Go to Gmail in a desktop-class web browser.
  2. If needed, sign in to your Gmail account.
  3. In the upper right area, select the Sprocket (settings) | See All Settings | General (from the menu options listed across the top).
  4. Ringlet down to the Signature section.
  5. Either choose the "+ Create New" button or select an existing signature.
  6. In the signature area to the correct, enter and format any text or links you want in your signature.
  7. Select the Insert image option (Figure A), then navigate to the image y'all want.
  8. When finished, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the Salvage Changes button.

Figure A

In Gmail Settings, select the image icon, and so upload or insert an image from the web or Google Drive.

Google Workspace admins: How to add together an prototype in an appended Gmail footer

A Google Workspace administrator may manage electronic mail footers that append to every outbound email for an organisation. In the Admin console, the important settings are at App | Google Workspace | Gmail | Compliance, select an organization (or organizational unit) from the left (if needed), and then curl to Suspend Footer and choose Configure (Effigy B). To learn how outbound footers work in Google Workspace, read my article, How to ready a Gmail signature for your organization.

Figure B

A Google Workspace administrator may cull to append a footer to outbound email for an organization. Any paradigm inserted into this appended footer must be bachelor on the web with a public link. However, images stored on Google Bulldoze, even if publicly shared, volition not work.

But if yous try to insert an image stored on Google Bulldoze into an outbound footer, information technology won't work. You lot may only add an image with a public link into admin-managed appended footers (Effigy B). A publicly shared image stored on Google Bulldoze won't work.

I suggest you create and maintain a Google Site where y'all add together images, since whatsoever image stored on a Google Site page may be used in outbound footers—as long as the Site is published and public. Those last two criteria are of import: The image insertion into the footer won't work on sites that aren't public or aren't published yet.

To create a new Google Site dedicated to your outbound images, you might:

  1. Type site.new in a desktop-class browser.
  2. Edit the title for your site (e.g., Promotional Footer Images).
  3. Then select Insert | Images to either Upload or Select images to your site (Figure C). Alternatively, you might select Insert | Drive and then cull images stored on Google Bulldoze to add to your Site.

    4. Effigy C

    Equally you edit a Google Site, with the Insert tab active, select Images. You may then cull either to Upload or Select an paradigm.
  4. Select Publish, so edit the spider web accost for your site (eastward.yard., Footers).
  5. Under Who Tin View My Site, select Manage. So, under Links, select Change.
  6. Next to the Published site option, select the drop-down and choose Public (Effigy D), then select Done.

    7. Figure D

    Change your Site settings to make your published site Public.
  7. Select Washed again. The box should now brandish Anyone under Who Can View My Site. Select Publish.
  8. Next, select the drop-downward to the right of Publish, then choose View Published Site (Effigy E). This should open up the site in a new browser tab. Switch to that tab.

    9. Figure East

    Once public and published, select the drib-down options next to the Publish menu and cull View published site.
  9. On your site, right-click on the image you desire to insert into your outbound footer, then select Copy Prototype Address (Figure F).

Figure F

While viewing the published site, right-click (or Ctrl-click) on an image, then select Copy Image Accost from the displayed carte du jour.

You at present have the public link y'all need to paste into the prompt after you select the image icon in the Suspend Footer section of the Admin console. Every bit an editor of the site, you can always render to the site and copy the link to the published page. Share the link with others, and they'll be able to admission the page.

Optionally, you can have steps to make the footer folio a bit less easy to find. To do this, make certain you have at least two pages on your Google Site, and that your images are not on the Home page of the site. And so, while editing your Site, select Pages, then click on the three vertical dots to the right of your Footer page name. Choose Hide from navigation (Figure G), which volition remove the folio from Google Site navigation menus. Since the page is omitted from the bill of fare structure, it won't be available for a coincidental site company to access.

Figure G

You might make your footer prototype folio more than difficult to find with the Hide From Navigation option.

How practice yous utilise images in Gmail signatures?

Practice yous include standard data, such as contact or visitor information, in your signatures? Or do you personalize your signature with favorite images, phrases or quotes? Or do you "go minimalist" and omit the use of signatures entirely? Allow me know how yous use—or don't use—images in Gmail signatures, either with a annotate below or on Twitter (@awolber).