About Email Signature Standards

An email signature is a tool that we use to share our basic contact information and, more importantly, let our recipients know that we are connected to and communicating on behalf of Illinois. Because of this, it makes sense to standardize email signatures throughout the university and better tie them to the Illinois brand.

Resources and guidelines

Email Signature Generator

In order to make this standardization easy for everyone, we partnered with Web Services to add the email signature generator to the Web Tools suite. This tool allows you to simply copy and paste an appropriately formatted email signature into your email client.

Create your email signature

To generate your email signature and apply it to your email client follow these basic steps:

  1. Visit webtools.illinois.edu and log in using your net id.
  2. Hover over “More” in the top right-hand corner
  3. Click “Directory”
  4. You will see a list of all of the directory entries you have editor access to. Select your own by clicking your blue, hyperlinked net id.
  5. Click “Signature” near the top of the page.
  6. You will notice that the information from your directory listing has been auto-filled for your convenience. You are free to make any corrections or changes to this information.
  7. Once you are satisfied with your information, click the “Generate Signature” button.
  8. After this, click the “Copy to Clipboard” button and paste your new signature into your email client’s email signature settings.

Unique circumstances & customization

If your signature has special circumstances or customization needs the generator cannot meet, use this guide for the best ways to integrate your customizations.

Email signature standards state that only university department and unit affiliated social media accounts may be included in email signatures. If you are uncertain whether you are able to list a social media account refer to the campus social media listing.

If you are unsure how to add your signature to your email client, refer to the following step-by-step guides.