How to Use an Image in Your Email Signature with Office 365

We all know the importance of a good email signature! In fact, this can be a good and yet very effective and subtle way to market. We have had many people ask us this question and so I thought I would write up a quick post on it. It is how to use an image or picture in your email signature when using the Outlook Web App with Office 365. This is very easy to do, you just have to know how to do it the right way. Follow the steps below. This should also work with Outlook.com.

Note: This doesn’t appear to work in most versions of Google Chrome. I highly recommend using Internet Explorer to set this up, or if you are on a Mac Firefox should work.

Step 1

Outlook Web App Login

First we are going to go sign into the Outlook web app at http://outlook.office365.com

Step 2

Outlook Web App Options

Next we will click on the gear in the upper right hand corner and click into “Options.”

Step 3

Then click into “Mail > Layout > Email Signature.”

Outlook Web App Email Signature Block

Step 4

Ok, and so here is the part where 85% of people mess up. You need to have that image hosted online somewhere.  A lot of people just copy and paste their image into the signature block and while it might appear like it works… most likely when you send it out the receiver is going to get a big blank square with a red “X” in it. This is because the temporary link breaks. You need to have your image hosted online somewhere. I always just upload the image I want to my web server. If you don’t have access to a web server you can always upload it to a free image hosting site such as TinyPic. Once you know where the image is, you will need to browse to the hosted location URL. If you use TinyPic, they will give you the URL. If it is on your web server I advise just right clicking on it if you are in Firefox and selecting “view image.” URL example:  https://woorkup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/logo.png. Then right click on the image and select “Copy.” When this goes into your clipboard it is also going to capture the web server path.

Step 5

Now simply go back to the email signature block and hit paste (CTRL+V). You can then construct the rest of your signature. Then simply hit “Save” and you are all done and you shouldn’t have any problems with your image/picture becoming a broken/dead link. Also, if you construct your signature first in Microsoft Word, it should still work to paste into the email signature block as long as you pasted the image into word from the web server URL.

[alert-note]Note: If you are on a Mac some people have reported the above not working. You might need to drag and drop the image instead of copying/pasting.[/alert-note]
Outlook Email Signature Pasting an Image

Video

Here is a video as well if you are more of a visual person.

As always feel free to leave your comments below.

author bio
Brian Jackson

I craft actionable content and develop performance-driven WordPress plugins. Connect on X, subscribe to my newsletter (once a month), or buy me coffee.

71 thoughts on “How to Use an Image in Your Email Signature with Office 365”

  1. Followed your directions to the letter but it did not work. I went to Tinyurl, uploaded a proper logo, jpg format, copy > pasted the actual URL into the Outlook signature window… does not work. Any suggestions? Can it be a jpg image or does it have to be a png file? Thanks in advance!

    Reply
    • Follow-up… so I went and uploaded a png file, no luck whatsoever. I have no idea what I am doing wrong, it’s not like I am green when it comes to this stuff…

      Help!

      Reply
      • Hey astronut… you need to copy paste the Tinyurl into a new window so you see the image. Then right click on the image itself and copy it. Then paste that into the OWA signature window. Not the URL. Hopefully that makes sense. I am going to reword the tutorial above cause I see how it is a little confusing.

        Reply
        • Thank you but that did not work either. I get this:

          Below is the actual URL to the image — if you could test it and see for yourself, I would appreciate it. I really don’t know what else to do other than go get a different email provider/interface.

          http://tinypic.com/view.php?pi

          I also included a screen shot of what I am seeing…

          Reply
          • Oh, I think I see your problem. Right-click on that image and copy it to your clipboard. Then go back to OWA and hit paste and see if that works. Let me know!

          • If by OWA you mean the “Email Signature” window in Settings, then that’s what I just tried. When I paste what I copied to the clipboard (per your instructions), nothing appears. This is madness, it really is. Are you using a PC or a Mac? I wonder if that’s what’s going on.

          • Hi, sorry for delay… So I have tried this now in old Outlook Web Access at work and also new Office 365. Both work fine on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 (preview) for me using both Firefox and Chrome. Are you on a Mac? And what browser are you using?

          • Hi, Brian

            No worries. I am using a Mac, OS 10.9

            I have tried this using Safari and Chrome.

            I have tried doing this on my PC laptop to no avail, using Safari and Chrome.

            I’m telling you, I am in no way green with computers, I’ve designed website, etc. – and this isn’t working. I can’t believe Outlook is so dated, every email interface should be able to include, and display, a simple jpg image.

            Do you have an email address? Mine is info@blulabdesign.com
            Might be easier to communicate. Thanks, man.

          • Sorry to read you both dropped out this – for me – very useful discussion. I am having the exact same problem. Did you find a solution?

  2. Thank you SO Much for this tutorial. I was having problems with OWA saying that the text was too large but hosting on Tiny Pic solved my problem. This was so incredibly helpful, most appreciated!

    Reply
    • Thanks for your comment Chris! I have added a note above as I just tried this in Chrome and like you said it didn’t work. Recommending people to use IE first, or it also should work in Firefox if you are on a Mac.

      Reply
  3. Unfortunately most email clients will block externally linked images by default therefore we still get the “red x” on signature images sent this way.

    Reply
    • Hi Steve,
      Thanks for your comment. That is definitely a possibility if they haven’t enabled the option to show images by default. However, I suggest using partial text and an image. You can see in my signature above, even if the image doesn’t show up or appears as a Red X, I still have my contact information there.

      Reply
  4. Niels Henrik Duevang, you hit the nail on the head! My fiancee and I are both designers and we just spent the greater part of an hour trying to figure this out. We’re both working on Macs, using both Safari and Chrome to get this right. Copy and pasting doesn’t work. It’ll paste into the “Email Signature” window, and show up when you go to compose a new email, but then not show up when you send the email OR when you go to compose another email. It’s also not there when you go back into the settings. Drag and Drop was the ONLY solution that worked. Just wanted to save some other folks time and frustration. Nevertheless, thanks Okay Marketing for providing a space for this dialogue to take place ;)

    “Illusion…a trick is what a whore does for money.”

    Reply
    • Great, glad you got it working. I will make a note in the article above about Macs and drag and drop. As PC the copy paste does work. I have done it hundreds of times. I unfortunately don’t have a Mac to test with. Glad we got it all figured out now on both systems!

      Reply
  5. Hi Brian,
    My “image” icon is gray scaled and inactive. Any hints/explanations you can share on that one?

    Thank you for a great post.

    Best,
    Kevin

    Reply
  6. Thanks! Especially that “Note: If you are on a Mac some people have reported the above not working. You might need to drag and drop the image instead of copying/pasting.”

    Thanks!

    Reply
  7. Hi Brian, I’ve tried all of the above steps on a mac, but for some reason when I copy paste the tiny URL into my signature and save it the URL comes up on my signature not the image. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Please help!

    Reply
  8. Hey Brian, I have the issue where on the desktop version of Office 365 mail, my company logo tends to show different sizes for different people. Even though I am doing the copy/paste from my main signature, it just somehow changes sizes on it’s own.

    We have our standard text…then comes our square icon, then more text. It’s the icon that seems to re-size itself from one signature to the next.

    What is your solution to this…and thanks!

    Reply
  9. Hey Brian, thanks for the great article. I totally agree about the images, people always forget to host it somewhere and then can’t work out what is going on.

    We’ve just started using a product called Crossware Mail Signature for our sigs. I’d definitely recomend it to anyone looking for a solution. Not selling it, just a happy customer – http://www.crosswareus.com/

    Reply
  10. Hi We have the image / icon showing in the signature block as per your instructions, it is the next bit that is stopping us.

    How do you set the image / icon to have a hyper-link. Before you all say highlight / select the image then use the drop down to select insert hyper- link we have tried that all it will do is paste the hyper-link on the page next to the image.

    We have tested this is in IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari just in-case it was a browser thing.

    Any ideas?

    Thanks

    Karl

    Reply
  11. Hi, just tried this and the image presentation works fine. However, I’ve noticed that some email clients put some significant paragraph spaces between the lines in the signature; any fixes other than making the whole sig block a picture?

    Reply
  12. Hi Brian,

    understood that u need to upload the image online, but how to insert hyperlinks on social media icons such as facebook, twitter, etc.

    when i paste the image i get options such as : small, best fit, large, remove.

    How do we select the image( for example facebook icon) and link it to our social media page?
    Please help.

    Reply
  13. Hi Brian – This isn’t working for me. I’m using Internet Explorer and when I paste the TinyPic link in the email signature block, all that appears is the actual link. Can you help?

    Reply
  14. Hi Brian,
    Thank you for the instructions. But unfortunately it did not work for me. Followed the above instructions 1. Uploaded image (.png) on tinypic 2. copied URL, found image, copied image 3. went back to email and pasted the image. It still breaks done when sending a email with a signature image. When trying to place a hyperlink on the image (read that on the internet that could solve it) it says ‘the signature is too big try making it smaller’? Used the hyperlink URL for e-mail & IM offered by Tinypic. Thanks in advance for your answer!

    Reply
  15. Awesome how this still does not work, answer me this… when you upload your image to be hosted online somewhere and use it on your signature, what will happen when the site hosting your image blows up? hmmm?

    Reply
  16. does not work for me.

    But I made it work in different way. Maybe can work for you too. :)
    So I used zoho mail where I have my personal account. They have more options how to add images. They have option to use url link and even choose the size, position. I attached image in mail as URL and sent it to my Office 365 work email. I copied all the information including the image from the email and placed it in the signature and it works with all type of licences. Happy :) I guess that in other email account it was possible to save image with URL and when I copied it, the URL stayed. Maybe you can try any other email account you know you can add images with more features and then copy. The same I do with colour options. Cheers!

    Reply
  17. I’ve managed to create an email signature with images, but I’ve failed to make hyperlink using my image. Any suggestions?

    Reply
  18. The only thing that shows up is the url, not the image. I tried photobucket hosting and also TinyPic. Help! I’m using chrome.

    Reply
    • Paste the url into the address bar then right click on the image and press “copy image” then paste.

      That didn’t work properly for me though, I had to literally select the image like you would with text and then copy it and paste. That worked fine for me. And I’m also using chrome.

      Reply
  19. Does not work for me…. if I change from Chrome to Firefox or IE, can I put a Gift?
    Before Outlook change I used to have one, but now I cant.

    Reply
  20. I read this post fully on the topic of the resemblance
    of most recent and preceding technologies, it’s amazing article.

    Reply

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