Install guide: Apple Mail
Add an animated signature in Apple Mail.
Apple Mail on a Mac takes an animated signature with everything intact, once one box is unticked. The iPhone and iPad keep the formatting too, which no other phone mail app does, if the signature comes from a real email.
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The short answer
How do you add an animated signature in Apple Mail?
On a Mac, open Mail, choose Mail then Settings, and click Signatures. Pick your account in the left-hand column, click the + button, clear Always match my default message font, then paste the signature you copied. On an iPhone or iPad, email the signature to yourself, copy it from that message, and paste it into Settings, then Apps, then Mail, then Signature.
On a Mac
Six steps, one box to untick.
Apple Mail needs one box unticked first, or it strips the formatting out.
Copy your signature
In Animated Signature, press Copy signature. It goes onto your clipboard as formatted content, images, colours and layout included, rather than as code.
Open Mail's signature settings
In Mail, choose Mail then Settings (or press Cmd+,), then click the Signatures tab.
Add a signature to the right account
Pick your email account in the left-hand column, not All Signatures, or the signature cannot be assigned. Click the + button underneath.
Untick the font box first
Below the editing area, clear Always match my default message font. Leave it ticked and Mail flattens your signature to plain text the moment you paste.
Paste it in
Select everything already in the box, delete it, then press Cmd+V. The signature appears with its images and layout.
Choose it as the default
At the bottom, set Choose signature to your new one. Close the settings window. Mail saves as you go.
On iPhone and iPad
Copied from an email, formatting and all.
iPhone Mail is the one mobile app that keeps formatting, but only if the signature arrives by email.
Email the signature to yourself
On a computer, install the signature in a desktop mail app first, then send yourself any message. That message now carries the signature.
Open it on your iPhone and copy it
Open that email in the Mail app. Press and hold on the signature, choose Select All, then Copy. Copying it from a real message is what preserves the images.
Paste it into the signature setting
Go to Settings, then Apps, then Mail, then Signature. Clear whatever is there and paste. The formatting comes through.
Check it landed
Start a new message. If the signature came through as plain text, the copy step picked up text only. Go back and use Select All rather than dragging a selection. If you send from more than one address, choose Per Account rather than All Accounts.
What recipients see
Sent from a Mac, read anywhere.
You send from Apple Mail; the people you write to read in whatever they use.
Apple Mail and Gmail
Play the animation, on the desktop and on the phone.
Current Outlook
Plays it, unless animation effects are switched off in Windows.
Older Outlook
Shows the first frame, which is the finished picture, so the signature is still whole.
Images blocked
The name, the details and the links stay readable, because they are text rather than a picture.
Questions
Apple Mail questions
I pasted it and it turned into plain text. What happened?
Mail's Always match my default message font box was ticked. Delete what you pasted, clear that box below the editing area, and paste again: the photo, the colours and the links come back.
Do I have to set it up again on my iPhone?
Yes. Mail on iPhone and iPad has its own signature setting, separate from the Mac's, so it is set up once on each, using the steps above that copy it from a real email.
Why do my banner loads look high when my readers use Apple Mail?
Apple Mail can fetch the images in an email ahead of time, whether or not anyone reads it. That is why banner loads are labelled approximate on your dashboard. Clicks are the figure to judge a banner by.
Can I give each of my email accounts its own signature?
Yes, in Mail: on the Mac, add the signature under each account in the left-hand column, and on the iPhone, choose Per Account. Your Animated Signature account holds one signature, so it is the same one pasted into each.