Signature: How Tall? Text: How Wide?

Formatting Email

In spite of HTML invading email messages and "obsoleting" some old formatting rules email in its most universal and useful form is still plain text. Two very simple and basic yet important issues are the width of the text and the height of the signature.

Text: How Wide?

Text terminals usually had and have a width of 80 characters; this means they can display just as many characters in one row. This is the "historical" reason why the ultimate text width of email messages should be 80 characters.

About.com Poll Do you append a signature to your emails? Yes. Yes -- private. Yes -- for work. No. Current Results

But what if you're sure nobody will ever want to read your mail on a text terminal (not too esoteric an assumption indeed)? Then the "practical" reason why you should break your lines between the 68th and 80th rows still applies: it's easier to read than one long and tiring chain of symbols.

I personally use row number 74 to trigger the carriage return.

Signature: How High?

Signatures, the witty, funny, advisory, advertising lines at the bottom of email messages are -- if nothing else -- a tradition; it's doubtful whether vCards or similar initiatives will ever replace them (although this is possible).

I won't tell you how `high' you should or should not be when you compose your signature; at least not now.

I do, however, advise you to keep your signatures, whatever their origin may be, to 4 or 5 lines. The argument for this restriction was, and sometimes still is: "bandwidth!" Given what kind of videos literally waste bandwidth (and democracy) today this is ridiculous (not meaningless or nonsensical, though).

The aim of a signature is to be read. If the signature is too long, all you possibly achieve is (mild) anger.

The signature is a message, not the message. If it is the message, make it the message.

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