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HomeGuidelines for signature design

This article outlines best practices for designing email signatures that display consistently across different email clients and devices.

To ensure the best results when creating an email signature in Exclaimer, follow the design recommendations below. These guidelines help avoid common rendering issues in Outlook, Gmail, and mobile email clients.

Design guidelines

To ensure signatures display correctly across email clients, follow these guidelines:

  • Define the width within the recommended range
  • Use tables for layout
  • Size images to their actual display dimensions
  • Choose supported file formats
  • Consider how the signature will appear on mobile devices

Recommended design standards

These standards help ensure signatures render consistently across email platforms.

Element Recommendation
Signature width 320–600 px (450 px recommended)
Layout method Tables
Banner image width Maximum 600 px
Image sizing Match image file size to display size
Supported formats JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF
Spacing Use table padding

Best practices

Layout

Follow these layout guidelines to ensure clarity, consistency, and readability:

  • Use tables to structure your layout.
  • Nesting tables allows for basic to more complex layouts.
  • Use padding to create space between elements.
  • You can set a fixed width on tables to improve consistency across devices.

Common font sizes

Use the following font sizes to maintain readability and professional appearance:

  • 11 pt – 12 pt for larger text (example name, job title)
  • 10 pt – 8 pt for contact details (example phone, email, website)
  • 8 pt – 7 pt for disclaimers and legal text

Images

For optimal email client support and to prevent signature images from appearing larger than expected, follow these guidelines:

  • Images should be uploaded at the exact size they are intended to display in the signature.
    • Example: A company logo that should appear at 200 × 100 pixels must have an image file sized 200 × 100 pixels.
  • Images can be either embedded or linked:
    • Embedded images: Uploaded directly from your device into the signature template.
    • Linked images: Hosted on a public-facing server and referenced using a hosted URL in the signature template.

Mobile compatibility

Use these practices to maintain a clean, simple, and mobile-friendly layout:

  • Keep designs compact to avoid horizontal scrolling.
  • Avoid overly wide or complex layouts.
  • Always test signatures on mobile devices where possible.
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