How to Add an Email Signature in Outlook: New Outlook, Classic and the Web

Make your Outlook signatureDownload the Outlook signature setup sheet (PDF)

First, which Outlook do you have?

Microsoft's help page on adding an email signature in Outlook covers new Outlook for Windows, classic Outlook for Windows, Outlook on the web and Outlook.com, with a separate page for Outlook for Mac. The steps differ, so start by working out which one is in front of you:

• Classic Outlook for Windows has a File tab, and under it, Options. If you can click File, Options, you have classic.
• New Outlook for Windows looks much like Outlook on the web, with a Settings gear at the top right and no File, Options route.
• Outlook on the web is the same screen in a browser, either through a work account or Outlook.com.

Microsoft's page has a practical tip: if the steps for new Outlook don't match your screen, you are probably not on new Outlook yet, so use the classic steps.

Build the signature first

1. Find out which Outlook you have

Use the checks above.

2. Build and copy the signature

Outlook's signature editor can format text and insert a picture, but laying out a photo beside your details with a coloured divider is awkward there. Our free email signature generator does the layout for you: fill in your details, choose one of four templates and an accent colour, and press Copy signature. The page also has install steps for each Outlook under the preview.

New Outlook and Outlook on the web

3. Open Signatures

Microsoft's steps for new Outlook: select Settings, then Accounts, then Signatures. If more than one account is added, choose the one the signature is for. Select Add signature and give it a distinct name.

4. Paste and set the defaults

Paste into the editing box below the name. Use the checkboxes at the bottom to apply the signature to new messages, and to replies and forwards; or leave them blank and add the signature by hand when you write. Select Save.

To add a saved signature while writing, Microsoft's page says to use Signature in the Insert group on the Message tab. To change one later, go back to Settings, Accounts, Signatures and select Edit signature next to it.

Classic Outlook for Windows

5. Open Signatures, paste and save

In classic Outlook, the route is File, Options, Mail, Signatures. Select New, name the signature, and paste it into the Edit signature box. On the right, choose the email account and the signature to use for new messages and for replies and forwards. Select Save, then OK.

If you'd rather add a logo inside Outlook, Microsoft describes opening a new message, choosing Signature, then Signatures, selecting the signature and using the Image button to insert the file, then right-clicking the picture and choosing Picture to set its size. A pasted signature from the generator already has the picture in place, as long as it comes from a public https address.

6. Send a test

Send one email to an address on another service, such as Gmail, and look at it on a computer and on a phone.

Why classic Outlook changes some designs

Classic Outlook on Windows doesn't draw email the way a web browser does. Microsoft documented this when it made the change: its article on Word 2007 HTML and CSS rendering capabilities in Outlook 2007 explains that Outlook uses Word to display HTML email, with its own, narrower set of supported HTML and CSS. Later versions of classic Outlook kept that approach, which is why designers still plan around it.

Two practical effects for signatures, both tracked by the email support database Can I email:

• No rounded corners. Rounded corners (the CSS property border-radius) are listed as unsupported in Outlook for Windows from 2003 to 2019. A photo made round with CSS appears square there. If a round photo matters to you, crop the image file itself into a circle on a white background.
• Layout needs tables. Positioning tricks that work on web pages don't work in Word's engine, which is why signatures built from a simple table, with the style written on each element and fonts every computer already has, hold their layout. The generator builds its button from a table cell with a background colour for the same reason.

Our guide to signature logo sizes and file types covers which picture formats classic Outlook can show.

Phones, Macs and the rest of your inbox

Outlook for Mac has its own steps, linked from the top of Microsoft's page. Mail apps on phones commonly keep their own signature setting, so check the app you use; Gmail's app, for example, has a separate mobile signature, which our Gmail signature guide covers.

If you also want your inbox next to your customer list, Fynl's portal connects a Gmail inbox and shows it beside contacts, bookings, quotes and invoices, and each person on the team saves a signature that is added when they write from there. It works with Gmail rather than Outlook today, so it suits businesses on Google mail. The signature generator is free for everyone, whatever email you use. More free tools are on the free tools page.

Questions people also ask

Sources

• Microsoft Support — How to add and change an email signature in Outlook
• Microsoft Learn — Word 2007 HTML and CSS Rendering Capabilities in Outlook 2007
• Can I email — border-radius