How to Add an Email Signature in Outlook

Microsoft Outlook is one of the most popular email clients for business. Here's how to set up your professional email signature in every version of Outlook.

Create Your Signature First

Use Signature Studio to design your signature. Choose a template, customize your colors and layout, then click Copy Rendered to copy the formatted signature to your clipboard.

Outlook Desktop (Windows)

Method 1: File Menu

1. Open Outlook and click File > Options
2. Click Mail in the left sidebar
3. Click Signatures... button
4. Click New, give your signature a name
5. In the editor, paste your signature (Ctrl+V)
6. Set "New messages" and "Replies/forwards" to your new signature
7. Click OK

Important: Preserve Formatting

When pasting into Outlook Desktop, hold Ctrl while pressing V to ensure the HTML formatting is preserved. If the signature looks like plain text, undo and try pasting again with Ctrl held down.

Outlook on the Web (outlook.com / Microsoft 365)

1. Click the gear icon in the top right
2. Type "signature" in the search bar and select Email signature
3. Click New signature and give it a name
4. Paste your signature into the editor (Ctrl+V)
5. Toggle on "Automatically include my signature on new messages" and "on replies/forwards"
6. Click Save

Outlook for Mac

1. Open Outlook and click Outlook > Preferences in the menu bar
2. Click Signatures
3. Click the + button to add a new signature
4. Give it a name and paste your signature into the editor
5. Set the default signature for your account
6. Close the preferences window

Outlook Mobile (iOS and Android)

1. Open the Outlook app
2. Tap your profile picture > Settings (gear icon)
3. Scroll down and tap Signature
4. Paste your signature text

Note: Outlook mobile has limited HTML support. Your signature may appear as plain text. For the best results, use the desktop or web version to set your default signature.

Troubleshooting

Images not displaying? Outlook may block external images by default. Your recipients can click "Download pictures" to see them. Using smaller, hosted images helps.

Signature looks different than expected? Outlook's HTML rendering engine is different from web browsers. Signatures built with HTML tables (like those from Signature Studio) render most reliably.

Signature too wide? Keep your signature under 600px wide for best compatibility across all Outlook versions.

Tips for Outlook Users

• Use HTML tables instead of CSS for layout (Signature Studio does this automatically)
• Avoid transparent PNGs in older Outlook versions (they may show with a white background)
• Keep total image size under 50KB for fast loading
• Test with both desktop and web versions before rolling out to your team