An animated logo for your email signature
An email signature is the hardest constraint an animated logo faces: small dimensions, hostile clients, and a total signature weight most people blow through with a single oversized GIF.
What actually constrains you
- File size. A signature travels with every message you send. Keep the animation under 500 KB; under 200 KB is better and easily achievable.
- Width. Signatures render around 320–480 px wide. Exporting at 1920 px wastes roughly 90% of the file on pixels no one sees.
- Format. GIF is the only animation most email clients play. SVG animation does not run in email, and video will not embed. This is the one place GIF is still the correct answer rather than a legacy one.
- Outlook. Several desktop Outlook versions show only the first frame. Your logo must be legible as a still — so avoid effects that begin on a blank or dark frame.
The Outlook rule, in one line
Pick an effect whose first frame is the finished logo. A shine or gleam passes a highlight over artwork that is already fully drawn, so a first-frame-only client still shows a correct logo. A fade-in or zoom-in starts from nothing and degrades to an empty box.
Settings that work
| Setting | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Max size (longest edge) | 320–480 px | Matches how signatures actually render |
| Format | GIF | The only one email clients animate |
| Effect | Shine, Gleam, Shimmer | First frame is the complete logo |
| FPS | 15–20 | Above 20 adds weight, not smoothness |
| Colours | 64 | Ample for flat brand artwork |
A logo exported this way typically lands between 40 KB and 120 KB — comfortably inside every signature budget.
A transparent background matters more here
Signatures are read on white and on dark themes. A PNG with real transparency sits correctly on both; a logo flattened onto a white rectangle shows an obvious white box in dark mode. Start from a transparent PNG where you can. If yours has a flat background baked in, the background remover lifts artwork off a solid plate — though that is colour-keying, not cutting a subject out of a photograph.
Frequently asked
What size should an email signature logo be?
320 to 480 pixels on the longest edge, and under 500 KB in total. Most signature logos are displayed at around 200 to 300 px wide, so anything beyond 480 px is wasted weight.
Do animated GIFs work in Outlook signatures?
Partly. Outlook on the web and on mobile animate normally. Several desktop Outlook versions display only the first frame, so choose an effect whose first frame is already the finished logo — a shine or gleam rather than a fade-in.
Should I use GIF or SVG in an email signature?
GIF. Animated SVG does not run in email clients. SVG is the better choice for a website header, where it is both smaller and sharper.