17

I have a Google Apps e-mail account. I want to include the company logo to the left of my signature text.

The only way I can find to do this so far is to build it so that the text is part of the image. I do not want to do it this way, because then the text part would not be visible to anyone not showing images in their e-mail client.

Is there a way to make this work?

Improve this question
2

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
7

You can do this via Google Docs. That's what I did. Just as with the MS Word solution, make a Google Sheet or Document with the table arrangement you need: in this case, one row and two columns. Put the image in the left column and your signature text in the right column. Now share the document as public, so that anyone with the link can see it. Then copy/paste from the document to your signature.

In this way, the image will show up the first time, as your Google Doc is like a space in the web from which the signature can draw the picture from.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Note that 8 years later I've experienced multiple instances where Google changed how sharing works to break this. I still use this technique, but only to create the initial layout. Once the layout is working I will replace the image with one from a source where I have more control it will remain public. I can place the new image in the correct place in the layout structure from the original document, and this will work better over time.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Jan 19, 2022 at 19:47
15

Please follow the steps

  1. Create a table of one row with two column having border none in Microsoft Word.

  2. Place the image on the left column and Signature in the right column.

  3. Copy the table and paste it in the signature area.

You will find the image on the left side and the text on the right side.

Improve this answer
3
  • Haha, that worked great! The image didn't show at first (didn't upload), but it created a space that I could move an image I added to the signature separately into.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Dec 6, 2011 at 15:50
  • To follow up, since I just had to repeat this: This method works, but when you paste the signature into gmail the images won't show up. To get the images to show up, you then have to place them to a public web space of some kind and open them up in a web browser. Then you can drag them (probably requires google chrome) next to the placeholders that show up in your signature settings, remove the original placeholder, and all is well.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Oct 12, 2012 at 20:18
  • Coming back to this yet again: this is also works very well using a Google Doc or Spreadsheet to create the columns, and if you do this with a public document you also don't need separate hosting space.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Aug 13, 2013 at 16:47
6

I realize this question has been answered, but I wanted to share a method to write HTML directly into the signature textarea, to do this:

  1. Write something in the Signature Rich Text Area provided by Gmail.
  2. Inspect the text you just wrote with the developer tools for your browser.
  3. Add any HTML with inline CSS accepted by the email signature tab.
  4. To get this to validate, you have to change something in the text area to get it updated (if you save without changing anything, nothing will happen).

To get an image in this area, you need to write the HTML and paste it there. You can use the one below to get the results you want:

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td style="width: 80px">
        <img src="http://www.example.com/path/to/your/image" width="40" height="40">
      </td>
      <td>Other <strong>HTML</strong> Content</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
Improve this answer
2
  • I'm warming up to this answer. I dismissed it originally as too hard for the typical user, but as someone who does know html well and has seen the awful markup generated by MS Word and company, the idea being able to better control my markup has definite appeal.
    – Joel Coehoorn
    Commented Oct 19, 2016 at 17:36
  • For anyone coming here years later, like me: the key here is that your table has a tbody tag! If the table has no tbody, you can create columns as you like but Gmail will not honor them. Wrapped in a tbody, it all works just fine. I used hubspot.com/email-signature-generator and added tbody myself.
    – Robin van Baalen
    Commented Feb 27, 2019 at 19:59

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.