Alternative to base64 Encoded Image sources (E-Mail Signatures) - html

I am trying to generate email signatures for my entire company so I am using a script to fill in an HTML template with each individual's information and generating an HTML file that I would like to use for the signature. The generation of the HTML works fine and I can load the HTML into chrome and it displays 100% correctly.
I would prefer to not have to host these images somewhere at the moment and would like them to be embedded in the e-mail. We can achieve this by using outlook on each individuals machine to create the signature by hand, but again we want to avoid that. Ideally, we will generate these templates and then automatically put these files on each employee's computer so all we have to do is select the signature from outlook.
The problem we are having is that when we do this, the image does not load. It seems that outlook won't allow base64 encoded images? I've tried to work around this by trying to attach the image to the email and then referencing it, but this doesn't seem to work either. I used this template. I got the boundary from a test email I sent myself, but I don't even know if this is a good way to go about this either.
In short, is there a way to create an .htm file for outlook signatures that includes the image inside the .htm file?

External image file that will be added as an attachment is the only way - Word (which renders HTML messages in Outlook) does not support base64 embedded images.
Try to create a new signature with an image in Outlook and see how they reference the images.

Related

Images not being displyed gmail html signature

I created a basic signature using HTML Tables that contains some images. I have inserted the images using <img> Tags. The images are hosted on a remote server.
After making the signature in HTML, to insert the signature on Gmail. I followed the following procedure:
open the HTML file, copy the content using 'ctrl+a' / 'ctrl+c'
open gmail -> settings -> signatures -> add new signature and paste 'ctrl+v' on the editor.
Everything works fine. The HTML structure and the inline styles stay intact. However, the images do not load up. Instead, I get a broken image icon instead of images, which you get when the image is not found. When I try to compose the signature, I see my signature without the image on the Gmail email compose editor.
When I send the email, however, everything works perfectly fine, the image on the signature loads up perfectly when I open the email in the inbox or on the sent item.
My issue is I want the images on my signature to load up when I am composing the email as well. The only solution I find on the internet is to turn on the plain text mode while composing the email. Turning off/on plain text mode does not work for me.

Is an HTML image in an email rendered before or after the recipient receives it?

I have a task to send an email containing an HTML image to recipients without using the internet (SMTP is okay). I need to do this in informatica BDM using a Java transformation. I have the code working with a hyperlink reference to the image but when I try to locally access the picture via absolute path, the image is not added (seems to be an Informatica issue).
My question is:
if I use the hyperlink to point to the image will my server try to add the picture before sending the email, or will the picture be rendered by the clients machine when they receive the email containing HTML?
Here is what my code looks like
emailDescription = emailDescription + "<center><img \" src=\""+ path + "\" alt=\"Logo\" align=\"middle\" title=\"Logo\"></center><br>";
where path is just a variable containing a link to the image
An image in an email is rendered by the email client, but the image can either be fetched from an URL or embedded in the email. If you don't have a web server to serve the image from an URL, you should look for embedding techniques (which unfortunately I don't know).
A quick search for embedding images showed me that various email client behave differently, mostly to protect receivers from spam and malicious images or links. You may have to test with some clients used by your target audience.

Embedding image in Outlook 2013

I need to be able to send an image in the signature line through HTML files.
However, it can not come from a webserver because the receiver of the mail will have a delay while downloading the image from the net.
Please help
I see you're using Microsoft Outlook from your tags, so I suggest to do the following:
Create the signature in Microsoft Word. Then save as:
HTML page - html
Rich Text Document - rtf
Plain Text Document - txt
Then you will have three files and a folder. Copy all that into your signature folder - found at
[disk letter]/Users/[username]/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Signatures/
They will now appear in Outlook, and the images should attach - but the receiver wont see them as attachments.

Img src not loaded in Outlook email

I send the same email to gmail (the image is loaded correctly) and outlook (Failed to load the given URL).
In gmail i have this html code:
http://xxx/~mgxzbmdx/joomla/images/stories/virtuemart/vendor/logo.png
In Outlook this one:
https://dub113.mail.live.com/Handlers/ImageProxy.mvc?bicild=&canary=nUc%2fUMnrf0l9V5rzT3XB4Cb5axSzPUBWqwI5uP2ZjrU%3d0&url=http%3a%2f%2fx.x.x.x%2f%7emgxzbmdx%2fjoomla%2fimages%2fstories%2fvirtuemart%2fvendor%2flogo.png
Any idea about the reason?
The problem is the file type.
HTML emails should only use .gif or .jpg.
Try with a new picture format. I suppose you use a .png file because it has transparency? It saddens me that I have to tell you this, but you'll be better off faking transparency with split images in nested tables. That's the only way for a html-email not to break.
I think the issue lies with your method/software. Looks like your / are getting converted to %2f which gmail seems to be smart enough to interpret, but Outlook is not. See if there is something in Virtuemart or Joomla that you can turn off link encoding or something like that.

html restrictions in ics file

I'm developing a function (C#, ASP.NET 4) which creates and downloads a .ics file.
I'm trying to figure out what restrictions there are on the html within the X-ALT-DESC property. For example, if I send this:
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:<html><body><ul><li style="font-weight:bold">#1</li><li>#2</li></ul><table border=1><tr><td>table test</td></tr></table><span style="font-weight:bold">Site Visit Agenda</span><br/><span>8:00 AM</span><br/><span>Check in with management<br/>Facility Inspection<br/>Training and Meeting Setup</span></tr></table></body><html>
When I open the downloaded file, it opens in Outlook 2010, so that seems o.k. While the list stuff renders as I'd expect, the table border doesn't show, nor do either of the font-weight settings get rendered. (On the plus side, the html tags aren't rendered as text, it just doesn't format the alt desc like you'd see in a browser with the same HTML).
Of course, we're trying to figure out what HTML we can and cannot use to format the information we want to show up in the alt description.
Searching around, I can't find anything which talks about what's allowed and what isn't.
Thanks to anyone who has a pointer.