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Signature designer

Photos, logos and images

Where each image comes from, what happens when one is missing, and how to keep signatures light.

  • Last updated
  • 5 minute read
  • Signatures

There are two images in a Signed signature: the person's photo and your organisation's logo. Both are optional, and both have a decent fallback when they are missing.

People's photos

A photo comes from the person's photo_url, which you set on their record in Users: either paste an address or upload a file. A CSV import can fill it in for a whole team at once.

Note: Microsoft 365 syncs names, job titles, departments, phones and addresses, but not photos. Set photos in Signed, or point photo_url at an image your intranet already serves.

  • No photo, by choice. Switch photos off in the designer and everyone gets the same layout.
  • No photo, by accident. People without one show their initials on a coloured disc, which most organisations leave switched on.
  • Photo added in Signed. Set it once on the person's record. Signatures are generated fresh each time, so the change is immediate.

Your logo

The logo is an organisation setting, not something you add to each design: upload it once in Settings and every signature that uses logo_url gets it.

Settings, where the organisation logo, company defaults and the disclaimer live.

Tip: Use a PNG with a transparent background, and check how it looks on a white background. A logo with a white box around it is the small detail people notice.

Size and blocked images

Assume a third of the people reading your email will not load images. That shapes two decisions:

  • Keep every image under about 200 KB. Signatures are attached to every message, so a heavy logo is a cost people pay on every reply.
  • Never put essential information in an image. A phone number drawn as a picture disappears when images are blocked.

Signed serves uploaded images from a stable address, so they keep working in old email and in forwards.

Something here out of date, or a step that did not work? Tell us and we will fix the article. Every page is checked against the running product, so corrections are welcome.