Got Gmail? This is the simple signature tool you’ve been missing

When you’re trying to snazz up your emails with a signature at the bottom, it’s all too easy to overthink it.

Gmail’s signature tool offers extensive formatting options. (Want to sign off in Comic Sans? Go for it.) And typical signature-builder sites can get even more complex, with seemingly endless fonts, buttons, and shiny doodads to choose from.

The truth is, you don’t need all that to sign your emails in a presentable way. Just an image and a handful of descriptive lines should do the trick, and this free tool will give you just that without tempting you to go overboard.

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A simpler email signature

To create a slick email signature in seconds, check out Simple Signature.

➜ Simple Signature is a free email signature builder with minimal formatting options.

⌚ It’ll take about five minutes to get your signature looking just-so.

✅ The site’s signatures are intended to work with a wide range of email providers. When you’re finished, just copy and paste it into your email site’s signature editor.

Simple Signature starts you off with a “John Doe” template that includes a placeholder image at the top. You can add your own image by clicking the “Upload Logo or Image” button, or click the little eye icon to hide it. You can also use the other icons in this section to resize or reposition the image.

From there, it’s just a matter of adding, removing, or modifying the other fields in the template. The site lets you choose from just a few different field types:

• Text fields are for things like your name, title, address, and phone number.
• Link fields are for things the recipient can click on, like a website, social media account, or email address.
• Space fields are for adding a visual buffer between parts of your signature.

☝️ For links, you’ll see two fields to fill out side-by-side. The first is for the text that appears in your signature, and the second is for the page that loads when someone clicks the link. Make sure to use the format “mailto:youraddress@email.com” for email addresses.

Simple Signature’s font options are intentionally limited. You can either choose Helvetica, Arial, Mono, or nothing (which will just use the email provider’s default font).

Once you’re finished, just click the “Copy Signature” button in the top-right corner. This will add the signature to your clipboard, so you can paste it into your email app’s signature form. The site even offers instructions for adding the signature to Gmail as well as Outlook or Apple Mail.

If all that seems a little too basic, well, that’s the point. Other signature editors might let you do more, but this is the only one I’m aware of with a manifesto on why you shouldn’t.

• Simple Signature works in any web browser, though you should probably use it on a computer instead of a phone, as you may have difficulty pasting the signature into your email provider’s mobile app.
• The site is free to use with no ads for creating a single signature. There’s an optional $99 per year “Pro” version for business users who want to create lots of signatures and share them with team members.
• No sign-up is required unless you want to start editing a signature on one device and finish up on another. The site’s privacy policy is easy to understand and makes clear that your data isn’t used for any purpose but to provide the signature builder.

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