Apple Mail : HTML signatures with externally hosted images

30th Nov 2010

To set an html signature:

  1. Create a new signature in Mail, can be blank > attach the signature to whichever account you want to use it with
  2. Quit Mail
  3. Navigate to your home folder > Library > Mail > Signatures > note which signature has just been created
  4. Write the html code or even just a valid CSS file with style applied to the element “body” > save it as signature.html on your desktop
  5. Open Safari > File > Open > Desktop > signature.html
  6. File > Save As > Home > Library > Mail > Signatures > click the signature which was created today > the dialog box should automatically name the file you’re about save exactly the same as the signature you clicked on
  7. Open Mail > New Mail > check the signature to make sure it’s working

You can use the html or css:background property to embed an image hosted on a remote server but most email clients will automatically block this so don’t count on it being seen by everyone.

This can remove the need to embed your logo as an attachment but it will be blocked by the majority of email clients, it’s probably most useful for styling with CSS.