What survives in email clients
| Technique | Outlook (Windows) | Gmail | Apple Mail |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Table layout | works | works | works |
| Inline styles | works | works | works |
| <style> block | works | stripped | works |
| Flexbox / grid | ignored | works | works |
| Web fonts | ignored | partial | works |
| Background images | ignored | works | works |
The two columns of failures are why this generator produces what it does. Every style is inline, the layout is a table, and the fonts are the ones installed on every machine.
A signature people actually read
Four lines is plenty:
- Name
- Role and company
- Phone and email
- One link
Everything beyond that gets skipped. Legal disclaimers, social icon rows, quotes, "please consider the environment" — these add weight to every message in a thread and nobody reads them. If your organisation requires a disclaimer, put it below the signature in plain small text.
Details that go wrong
- Absolute image URLs only. A relative path resolves against the mail client, not your site.
tel:links need digits. Strip the spaces and brackets from the href, keep them in the visible text.- No dark mode assumptions. Some clients invert colours. A signature with a transparent background and mid-grey text survives; a white box with a white logo does not.
- Test by sending to yourself. In Outlook, Gmail, and on a phone.
Escaped and safe
Every value you enter is HTML-escaped, and only http, https, mailto and
tel URLs are allowed through — so a stray angle bracket in a job title cannot
break the markup. Everything is generated in your browser.
Questions
Why tables and inline styles in 2026?+
Because Outlook on Windows renders HTML through Microsoft Word's engine, which ignores flexbox, grid, most of float, and external stylesheets. Nested tables with inline styles are the only layout that survives Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail and the mobile clients at once. This is not nostalgia — it is the actual constraint.
Why is my logo not showing in Outlook?+
Most likely the image is blocked by default until the recipient clicks "download images", which is the setting almost everyone has. Design the signature to read fine with no images at all, and never put your name or contact details inside an image.
Should I include a photo?+
It has to be hosted somewhere public and permanent, and it will be blocked on first view for most recipients. If you do use one, keep it under 100 px and make sure the signature still works when it does not load.
How do I install it?+
Copy the rendered preview — not the HTML — and paste it into your mail client's signature box. Gmail, Apple Mail and Outlook on the web all accept pasted rich content. Only use the HTML source if your client offers a source view.