Adding a photo to my work Gmail signature?
August 30, 2013 11:00 AM Subscribe
I am trying to edit my work Gmail signature so that a small photo of me appears on the left with my name and contact information next to the photo on its right.
I have tried copying the picture into the signature box and I've tried saving it to Flicker and using the "add a photo" link at the top of the signature box.
Sometimes the photo shows up as an empty box with a greyed out picture of a broken photo inside it. Sometimes it show up above or below my text. Is there a way to get the layout I'm looking for?
Many thanks!
I have tried copying the picture into the signature box and I've tried saving it to Flicker and using the "add a photo" link at the top of the signature box.
Sometimes the photo shows up as an empty box with a greyed out picture of a broken photo inside it. Sometimes it show up above or below my text. Is there a way to get the layout I'm looking for?
Many thanks!
Response by poster: Thank you. I tried that. When I put in the Flickr link to the photo, the option to click "OK" was greyed out as if the link was wrong or not acceptable. I logged out of Flickr and tried the link in a new Google page and it went to the image right away, so I don't think my link is the problem.
This is where I stopped trying and posted here.
posted by michellenoel at 11:08 AM on August 30, 2013
This is where I stopped trying and posted here.
posted by michellenoel at 11:08 AM on August 30, 2013
I'm not sure how to solve (sorry!), and you probably already have thought of this, but...
People read email in many different browsers on many different platforms. Once you succeed in getting your photo in your signature, you might try to view it in different clients - how does it appear in hotmail on IE on Windows? Mail.app on a mac? Outlook? Gmail on an Android?
Pictures and text formatting often get lost or confusing across platforms, so just experiment a bit.
posted by jander03 at 11:12 AM on August 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
People read email in many different browsers on many different platforms. Once you succeed in getting your photo in your signature, you might try to view it in different clients - how does it appear in hotmail on IE on Windows? Mail.app on a mac? Outlook? Gmail on an Android?
Pictures and text formatting often get lost or confusing across platforms, so just experiment a bit.
posted by jander03 at 11:12 AM on August 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Just so you're aware, the majority of email clients block remote images by default to prevent email senders from being able to track whether the email has been opened. So, unless the recipient has whitelisted you to display images, they're almost always going to see a broken box. That is most likely why you're seeing a broken image even after following the steps on the Google help page.
The only way to get around this would be to embed the image as an attachment, which GMail does not appear to support. If you're willing to use a desktop mail client, you might be able to get it working, depending on the client, but you'd be forcing everyone to download your image along with the message, which is not something I'd recommend.
posted by Aleyn at 11:13 AM on August 30, 2013 [3 favorites]
The only way to get around this would be to embed the image as an attachment, which GMail does not appear to support. If you're willing to use a desktop mail client, you might be able to get it working, depending on the client, but you'd be forcing everyone to download your image along with the message, which is not something I'd recommend.
posted by Aleyn at 11:13 AM on August 30, 2013 [3 favorites]
If you add a photo to your Gmail Profile you can set it visible to everyone in Gmail settings, which will at least get your photo to anybody using Gmail.
Also, I think vcards support an embedded photo, however you would need to use Thunderbird or Outlook connected to your Gmail account to do it that way.
posted by COD at 11:26 AM on August 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
Also, I think vcards support an embedded photo, however you would need to use Thunderbird or Outlook connected to your Gmail account to do it that way.
posted by COD at 11:26 AM on August 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
> … embed the image as an attachment
This would also have the side effect that every e-mail from you would have an attachment. Recipients would find it difficult to search for messages from you which really contained attachments, and not just your vcard.
posted by scruss at 12:01 PM on August 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
This would also have the side effect that every e-mail from you would have an attachment. Recipients would find it difficult to search for messages from you which really contained attachments, and not just your vcard.
posted by scruss at 12:01 PM on August 30, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks everyone. It doesn't seem like this will be possible, so I'll let it go. I just liked the way it looked but it's not Important.
Have a great weekend!
posted by michellenoel at 12:24 PM on August 30, 2013
Have a great weekend!
posted by michellenoel at 12:24 PM on August 30, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
Here's a step-by-step walk-thru from Google. If you don't see the Add an Image option under Advanced Options, just click the text and it will expand.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:05 AM on August 30, 2013