Illustration: Andy Wolber/TechRepublic

People identify all sorts of images in email signatures. In organizations, the inserted image is typically a logo, an ad or a promotional epitome. Sometimes it'south a photo or stylized image of the sender. Images in personal email signatures oft signal something nigh the person or the person'southward interests.

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If you use Gmail, yous may upload an image or insert an image from the spider web or Google Drive into your signature. And if you lot use Gmail every bit part of Google Workspace, an ambassador tin configure a signature—including an prototype—that appends to all outgoing email, every bit well. But any image an ambassador includes must exist available at a public web link, so the steps below draw how to get your image onto a Google Site in lodge to obtain a public link.

But earlier yous add any image into your signature, let me add a notation of caution. In general, I recommend people go on email signatures text-but. Text is much more accessible to people with low or no vision than an image in a signature. Besides, text uses far less bandwidth than an image. (Brand sure to resize and/or compress your image to appropriate dimensions and quality.) That said, there are many times when an prototype in a Gmail signature may be merited.

How to add an paradigm in a personal Gmail account signature

To add, edit or manage signatures in a personal Gmail account:

  1. Go to Gmail in a desktop-class web browser.
  2. If needed, sign in to your Gmail business relationship.
  3. In the upper right surface area, select the Sprocket (settings) | See All Settings | General (from the menu options listed beyond the meridian).
  4. Roll down to the Signature section.
  5. Either choose the "+ Create New" push or select an existing signature.
  6. In the signature area to the right, enter and format any text or links you desire in your signature.
  7. Select the Insert paradigm choice (Effigy A), then navigate to the paradigm yous want.
  8. When finished, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the Relieve Changes button.

Figure A

In Gmail Settings, select the image icon, then upload or insert an image from the web or Google Drive.

Google Workspace admins: How to add an image in an appended Gmail footer

A Google Workspace administrator may manage email footers that append to every outbound email for an organization. In the Admin panel, the important settings are at App | Google Workspace | Gmail | Compliance, select an organization (or organizational unit) from the left (if needed), and so scroll to Append Footer and choose Configure (Figure B). To acquire how outbound footers piece of work in Google Workspace, read my commodity, How to set a Gmail signature for your organization.

Figure B

A Google Workspace administrator may choose to suspend a footer to outbound email for an system. Any image inserted into this appended footer must exist bachelor on the spider web with a public link. Notwithstanding, images stored on Google Drive, even if publicly shared, will non work.

Simply if yous attempt to insert an image stored on Google Drive into an outbound footer, information technology won't piece of work. You may but add an image with a public link into admin-managed appended footers (Figure B). A publicly shared epitome stored on Google Drive won't work.

I suggest you create and maintain a Google Site where you add images, since whatsoever prototype stored on a Google Site page may be used in outbound footers—as long every bit the Site is published and public. Those terminal ii criteria are of import: The epitome insertion into the footer won't piece of work on sites that aren't public or aren't published all the same.

To create a new Google Site dedicated to your outbound images, you might:

  1. Type site.new in a desktop-form browser.
  2. Edit the title for your site (e.g., Promotional Footer Images).
  3. Then select Insert | Images to either Upload or Select images to your site (Effigy C). Alternatively, you lot might select Insert | Bulldoze and so choose images stored on Google Bulldoze to add to your Site.

    4. Figure C

    As you edit a Google Site, with the Insert tab active, select Images. Yous may then choose either to Upload or Select an image.
  4. Select Publish, then edit the web address for your site (east.g., Footers).
  5. Under Who Can View My Site, select Manage. And so, nether Links, select Change.
  6. Next to the Published site option, select the drib-down and cull Public (Figure D), then select Done.

    7. Effigy D

    Change your Site settings to brand your published site Public.
  7. Select Done again. The box should at present display Anyone under Who Tin View My Site. Select Publish.
  8. Side by side, select the drib-downward to the right of Publish, then choose View Published Site (Figure E). This should open the site in a new browser tab. Switch to that tab.

    9. Figure E

    One time public and published, select the drib-down options side by side to the Publish carte du jour and cull View published site.
  9. On your site, right-click on the image you want to insert into your outbound footer, then select Copy Image Accost (Effigy F).

Figure F

While viewing the published site, correct-click (or Ctrl-click) on an image, then select Copy Epitome Address from the displayed menu.

You now have the public link y'all need to paste into the prompt after you select the paradigm icon in the Suspend Footer department of the Admin console. As an editor of the site, y'all can e'er render to the site and copy the link to the published page. Share the link with others, and they'll be able to admission the page.

Optionally, you can take steps to brand the footer page a bit less piece of cake to notice. To practice this, make sure you have at least two pages on your Google Site, and that your images are not on the Home page of the site. So, while editing your Site, select Pages, then click on the three vertical dots to the right of your Footer page proper name. Choose Hide from navigation (Figure Grand), which will remove the page from Google Site navigation menus. Since the folio is omitted from the menu construction, it won't be available for a casual site visitor to access.

Figure G

You might brand your footer image folio more difficult to find with the Hide From Navigation option.

How do y'all use images in Gmail signatures?

Do you lot include standard information, such as contact or company data, in your signatures? Or do you personalize your signature with favorite images, phrases or quotes? Or practice yous "go minimalist" and omit the use of signatures entirely? Permit me know how you utilise—or don't use—images in Gmail signatures, either with a comment beneath or on Twitter (@awolber).