Filed under: Cool tools, How-tos, iPhone
Set custom iPhone CSS signatures
Here's a great how-to that I've been meaning to post for a while. Blogger David F. Bills posted a tutorial for adding custom CSS signatures to your iPhone email defaults. The process involves copying over your preferences file and adding the CSS code to the SignatureKey preference.
This gets very interesting when Bills shows you how to add a custom image to your signature. You actually have to encode the image directly so it arrives with your message. Otherwise, spam blockers may block the image download if you just use an HTML link.
It's a really easy to follow method and I had very little trouble getting it set up to include the signature shown here. My biggest obstacle came from my tendency to paste everything in TextEdit. For this project, PropertyListEditor works better and more reliably due to the length of the pasted key.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rizal said 12:12PM on 11-16-2007
please take your hacking posts elsewhere, TUAW is not an advanced hacking blog. start a new blog, the assertive and whiny hackers will follow you there, then we will all be happy.
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JRob said 12:25PM on 11-16-2007
@1: I, for one, will be happy when people stop complaining about posts on a blog that costs nothing to read and even less to ignore.
I started reading this blog after I bought my iPhone. I enjoy reading the information, even if I don't take advantage of all of it. As a consquence, I've also found it to be a great source for learning about new software, software updates, tips & tricks, etc. I have enough common sense to ignore posts that don't interest me -- and I certainly don't try to dictate to them how or what they should be or say. Consider trying that for yourself; you might enjoy how much it helps you to relax and enjoy life.
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Rob said 12:25PM on 11-16-2007
^^ Stop your whining.
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Brian said 12:47PM on 11-16-2007
@rizal I suspect you will never be happy.
I have, however heard that there is a new blog staring soon called The Unofficial Rizal Just For Me Blog where dedicated bloggers write articles that are just of interest to you. I, for one, cannot wait to read it and pass my comments.....
Thanks Erica, keep drinking the diet coke.
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MILE said 1:37PM on 11-16-2007
Actually I have been wondering if this was possible ever since I got my iPhone...! I have been using CSS sigs in Apple Mail for quite some time and now there seems to be a way of porting them to my iPhone...?! Great, this gets better and better...so, thanks, Erica...!
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WRB said 1:57PM on 11-16-2007
@1: I'd imagine that TUAW is whatever the blog authors want it to be. How 'bout you quit whining? Or go start your own hack-free blog so the rest of us don't get bothered by you.
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Ali said 2:08PM on 11-16-2007
Who is this first loser whining about content of this post?
I'm glad ppl like Erica can share the knowledge that you asswipes don't appreciate. I find all this information very informative and exhilarating.. KEEP IT UP!!!
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Bob S. said 2:18PM on 11-16-2007
On one hand, yes, Rizal is a dork.
On the other hand, keerist, now I have to worry that people are going to send me graphics-laden email crap from their iPhones? Is there a server I can add to procmail so mail from iPhones just never, ever gets through?
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Austin said 2:54PM on 11-16-2007
Erica, what are your plans come Feb if Apple doesn't sanction AppTapp?
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Pedrows said 2:59PM on 11-16-2007
I swear I thought that the CSS was about the band CSS. HAHAHA
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Chow7 said 4:07PM on 11-16-2007
is there an easy way to do it on windows?
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Frank said 5:55PM on 11-16-2007
Hey Erica, if you get a spare minute figure out a hack that will let me attach a file/picture etc to an e-mail once I already have the e-mail started. It's driving me crazy that I have not way of attaching anything after clicking on a mailto: link etc.
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WiFone said 8:08PM on 11-16-2007
Anybody know how to achieve this on a Windows machine? I.e. what to use instead of PropertyListEditor?
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jikespingleton said 10:09PM on 11-16-2007
This rules. I set the CSS signature on my phone, its insanely cool, stylish, and elegant AND it has an iPhone icon in it!... Then, I used the same concept to create the same signature for my computer and replaced the iPhone icon with a MacBook icon. Now when i send an email from my phone it will still indicate it was send from my iPhone, and email sent from my macbook will be indicated accordingly as well.. THIS TRICK RULES! one of my favorites thus far!
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Kofi Blades said 1:08PM on 11-17-2007
Hi. I tried this. It looks beautiful on my iPhone and all but I have a few problems.
The sent messages folder of the account that I sent the message with the signature will show only the text from the signature.
The picture does not show itself in the message as being sent with the rest of the signature.
When I check the webmail of the accounts, for example yahoo.com, for some reason, it manages to keep the formatting of the text, like my name in bold, my phone number in bold and the rest of the text in a different font and font size. It even has the two lines to the top and bottom of the signature. However, the picture is not there.
Then when I check the messages using the Mail application on my powerbook, Mail shows the same message with the image and the formated text. Erica, have you noticed this? Has anyone else who tried this gotten this anomaly? If you want, I can sent you the code that I used to do mine. and I can send you the picture data for the image that I used in the same base64.
I can be reached at kofster at yahoo dot com.
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Mario said 7:18PM on 11-18-2007
I've noticed that anomalia too.
If I send codded signature to Yahoo or Gmail, the image is missing. Any other mailservice sees them, but these two large fail. Any help or at least a reason why is that?
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Mordieu! said 11:15AM on 11-26-2007
David F. Bills link doesn't work anymore, I guess he got to many hits...
Here is another link that works!
http://limitededitioniphone.com/guide-custom-iphone-css-signatures/
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Mordieu! said 11:30AM on 11-26-2007
Well, I tried this css signature with an image encoded in data URLs. The image rendered perfectly with Apple mail app and with the iphone mail app, but not when I viewed my test email on google mail using firefox!
What gives?
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