SignatureAI

Apple Mail signature

Apple Mail on the Mac renders HTML signatures well: it uses the same WebKit engine as Safari. The iPhone and iPad are more limited. Here is how to set both up.

On a Mac

  1. In the generator, press Download .html, then open the downloaded file in Safari. Select the signature (⌘+A) and copy (⌘+C). Copying from Safari keeps the formatting most faithfully. Copy signature in Safari works too.
  2. Open Mail and choose Mail > Settings… (Preferences on macOS 12 and earlier) > Signatures.
  3. Select the account in the left column and click +. Give the signature a name.
  4. Untick “Always match my default message font”. Otherwise Mail replaces your signature's fonts.
  5. Click into the right-hand preview area, select the placeholder text and paste with ⌘+V.
  6. Pick it in the Choose Signature menu below, then close the window. Mail saves automatically.

Hosted images may appear as blue question-mark boxes in the settings preview but load in a new message. Compose a test email to yourself to be sure.

On iPhone and iPad

  1. On the phone, open this site in Safari, build or load your signature and tap Copy signature. (Or email the downloaded .html to yourself and copy from the message.)
  2. Open Settings > Apps > Mail > Signature (on iOS 17 and earlier: Settings > Mail > Signature).
  3. Choose All Accounts or Per Account, delete "Sent from my iPhone" and paste.
  4. If the formatting disappears right after pasting, shake the phone and tap Undo Change Attributes. iOS strips styles on paste and this restores them.

What survives on iOS: colours, bold, font sizes and links. What usually doesn't: side-by-side table columns and images. For a phone signature, the Compact or Classic layout with no photo works best.

If you need pixel-perfect control on a Mac

Advanced users sometimes edit the signature file directly. Mail stores each signature as a .mailsignature file inside your Library folder; the exact path depends on your macOS version and whether iCloud Drive syncs Mail. The usual method: create a placeholder signature, quit Mail, open the file in a text editor, keep the header lines at the top, replace the HTML body with the generator's HTML, save, then lock the file (File > Get Info > Locked) so Mail doesn't overwrite it. Back up first; for most people the copy-and-paste method above gives the same result.

Using Gmail or Outlook as well? See the Gmail and Outlook guides.

Questions people ask

Why does my Apple Mail signature look different when I send it?

Usually because "Always match my default message font" is ticked, which overrides your signature's fonts and sizes. Untick it in the signature settings.

Why don't images in my Apple Mail signature show for recipients?

Images dragged in from your Mac are sent as attachments, and some recipients see them as files rather than inline. Images linked from a public web address in a pasted HTML signature load like on a web page.

Can I add an HTML signature on iPhone?

Partly. iOS Mail accepts pasted formatted text and keeps colours, bold and links, but it flattens complex table layouts and does not reliably keep images. A simple layout survives best.

Do Apple Mail signatures sync between Mac and iPhone?

No. Mac signatures can sync between Macs through iCloud Drive, but the iPhone and iPad signature is a separate setting.