Note that this is for the web-based version of Hotmail. If you are using Hotmail with the Windows Live mail client, see this instead.

Hotmail does allow for the use of limited HTML in email signatures, and this does include the use of images as long as they are hosted in a public place.

All that’s required for you to do this is the following:

1. Use a free image hosting service and upload your image there.
2. Get the direct link to the image from the image hosting service.
3. Input this link into your signature using the HTML <img> tag.

Here’s how that’s done:

First, get your image. Use whatever image you want.

Second, host your image. For this example I will be using ImageShack because it has a super-friendly auto-resize feature. Simply check the box for "resize image" and select "100×75 avatar." This is absolutely perfect for signatures as it’s just the right size so it won’t annoy people you send mail to.

For my example I will use an image of a disgustingly ugly pair of dopey pants:

After you upload your image to ImageShack, you will see a screen for a "Direct link to image," like this:

Click the word "link" to the right of "Direct." You will then have the full direct link to the image in your address bar:

Leave this open for now because you’ll need to come back to it in a moment.

Open a new tab in your browser. This is done easily with CTRL+T.

Go to www.hotmail.com and login to your Hotmail account.

On the far right, click Options then More Options, like this:

Select Personal e-mail signature under Customize your mail, like this:

In the email signature editor, select Edit in HTML, like this:

In your email signature, type:

<img src="">

..like this:

Go back to your other tab where your ImageShack hosted image is. Highlight all the text in the address bar and press CTRL+C to copy.

Now go back to your email, click between the two quotes and press CTRL+V to paste.

It should look something like this when done:

Now click Edit in HTML and change back to Rich Text. Your image will now show in your signature. Click once after the image to see your blinking cursor, then type whatever text you want to appear.

Example:

When finished, click the Save button at bottom right.

At the top left of the next page, click Go to inbox to go back to your mail.

Click New to compose a new email.

You’ll see something like this:

..and that’s all there is to it.

A few quick end notes:

• If you’re thinking about using Flickr to host your email signature image, don’t. Having a direct-linked image with no link-back to Flickr is a violation of their community guidelines.
• Sometimes when loading your signature, the image may not show up instantly as it has to "call" it from another server every time it loads. This is usually just a very short pause since the image is small.
• Being that your image is hosted elsewhere, there is the chance that it will get deleted after a certain amount of time. This is easily remedied by simply re-uploading the image and re-editing your signature to reflect the new location. Be sure to save whatever image you use for your signature somewhere local (like a USB stick for example) just in case you have to do this.
• DO NOT direct-link from somebody else’s web site, because that’s just plain rude and it "steals" bandwidth. Either host it with a free image hosting service, put it on your own web site, or don’t do it all.
• No, those are not my pants.

Notes for Yahoo! Mail users:

I know this article is about Hotmail, but believe me, if there were a way to do this in Y! Mail, I’d happily instruct you how to do it. Y! Mail currently does not allow any HTML whatsoever in their email signatures, however, something in the back of my mind distinctly remembers that they used to allow it.. I’m pretty sure of that although I can’t prove it.

When Y! updated their mail system fairly recently, a few things in the mail signature section broke.

For example, if you try to insert an emoticon, which is a direct-use Y! feature, you get this lovely little message:

Yahoo evidently likes dangling the carrot for its mail users. The stationary (as in the last icon on the right in the signature editor) doesn’t work either, by the way. Gee, thanks Yahoo.

In Windows Live Mail (as in the e-mail client and not the web site) the default method for an e-mail signature is nothing but plain text, like this:

You can however create advanced e-mail signatures using the freely available Nvu web page editor.

Here’s how it’s done.

1. Download and install Nvu. It’s free.

2. Copy any images you plan to use to the folder My Stationary.

My Stationary is a folder you already have on your computer, located under My Documents. This was created when you installed WL Mail originally. Any images to be used in a signature must reside in this folder, else it will not work.

For the example below I’m going to use a small image of myself:

The above is a 48×48 pixel image. You should keep whatever image you use small so you don’t annoy the people you send mail to. If you’re asking the question, "How big is too big?", try not to use anything over a 100×100 image.

If you have an image you’d like to use but it’s too big, you can resize it quickly using Pixlr editor. This is a free in-browser editor (no need to install anything). Load that site, open the image you want to edit, click Image then Image Size from the black bar at the very top and resize to 80×80 or smaller, then save as PNG or JPEG.

When your images are ready, copy any you intend to use to the My Stationary folder.

4. Launch Nvu and save a blank signature first.

When you first launch Nvu you will be given a blank web page to edit, much like editing a new document a word processor. The first thing we’ll do is save this file. This is necessary to do first so that images can be added in more easily.

Click the Save button. You will be prompted to title the page. Call it signature, like this:

Click OK.

You will be be prompted to save the file somewhere. Navigate to the My Stationary folder and save your file as signature, like this:

The file will be auto-saved with the .html file extension.

5. Edit and save your signature.

First we’ll add in the image. Click the Image button at the top of Nvu. A new window will open.

Click the Choose File button.

Example:

You will be automatically placed into the My Stationary folder to find the image you want. If not, navigate to My Documents then My Stationary. Find the title of the image you want to add, then double-click to open it. 

After that, tick the option for Don’t use alternate text (if you don’t, Nvu will force you to use alternate text for images, which is not necessary).

You should have something like this:

Click OK.

Your image will be inserted into the page.

After that, type in some text you want in your signature.

For any text you want linked to another web site, highlight the text and click the Link button at the top of Nvu.

Here’s an example of what you could have:

The last thing we’ll do is change the font.

Press CTRL+A to highlight everything in the page.

Click the drop-down menu that states Variable With or Mixed and pick Helvetica, Arial like this:

It is strongly suggested that you only use Helvetica/Arial, Times or Courier as everybody has these fonts installed on their computers. If you choose a font that is non-standard, chances are high that it will show up as nothing but Times New Roman (or other standard serif font) on the recipient’s computer.

Lastly, adjust the font size by using the font increase/decrease size buttons:

Remember that you can highlight and select different text just as you would in a word processor program, adjusting some to be one size and other text a different size.

Here’s an example of what you could have:

When we’re all finished, simply click Save and close Nvu.

6. Enable the signature in Windows Live Mail.

In WL Mail, press ALT+M to bring up the menu, then click Options:

For the new window that appears, click the Signatures tab, then tick the option File at bottom, like this:

Click the Browse button to the right of File.

From the Open window that appears, change Text Files to HTML Files, like this:

Navigate to your My Stationary folder and select signature (this is the file you just saved a few moments ago).

At this point you will see the file path next to File, similar to this (the path will be different on XP computers because My Documents is in a different location):

Make sure Add signatures to all outgoing messages is checked:

Click Apply then OK.

7. Compose a new e-mail to yourself to test it out.

If all goes well…

Success! Your new advanced signature works!

Questions answered

My signature doesn’t look the same as it did in Nvu. Did I do something wrong?

No. You’re probably viewing and/or composing mails in plain text only.

In Options/Read, uncheck Read all messages in plain text, like this:

In Options/Send, the Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent checkbox must be unchecked, the Mail Sending Format must ticked as HTML, like this:

How do I re-edit my signature?

Launch Nvu and open the signature file from the My Stationary folder. Make any edits you wish, then save. It will instantaneously take effect in WL Mail on any future mails you send out.

Are the images I use in my signature attached as inline?

YES. They are attached to your e-mail and sent inline without any need to host them externally on other web sites like ImageShack or PhotoBucket. Your signature will never "break" because it will be not be dependent on any external image hosting whatsoever.

Can I use colors when editing my signature?

YES. You can highlight any text and make it any color you want.

Can I use advanced features when editing my signature such as tables, horizontal rules, paragraph alignment and so on?

YES. You can use all those things.

What can’t I do with my signature?

You can’t do anything that involves scripting of any kind. For example, if you entered in some JavaScript, that absolutely would not work. Everything in your signature file must be static in nature (which it is by default).

Why must the signature file itself and images I use be in My Stationary and not in a more convenient spot?

WL Mail has a feature called Stationary. It is something not too many people use simply because the stationary choices are terrible, and the way to create them is even more terrible (File / Save as Stationary doesn’t work, and the Stationary Wizard via the Options/Compose tab/Create New button isn’t too much better).

The signature file itself must reside in My Stationary for any signature images to work. For example, the image I used was menga48.jpg. When in the My Stationary folder, the HTML markup written by Nvu has src="menga48.jpg" in the <img> tag for the file path. If it were in any other directory, Nvu as well as any other editor would write something like src="file:///some-local-location/menga48.jpg", and that simply will not work.

Images for signature use almost must reside in My Stationary for file path reasons as well. When you have both the signature HTML file and the images in My Stationary, everything works.

Can I "export" my signature?

YES. Copy the signature.html file and whatever images you use to a USB stick, go to any other computer with Windows Live Mail installed on it, copy the files to the My Stationary directory on that computer, then follow steps 6 and 7 above.

What e-mail account types will this work on?

The signature will work regardless of account type, be it POP, IMAP or HTTP (Hotmail).

Is it absolutely required that I use Nvu?

No. Dreamweaver will work as will coding your HTML file "by hand" even with something as simple as Notepad. The editor is not necessary. I only mention it because it’s easier for most people to work with.

Can I use my word processor to export an HTML for use as a signature?

I highly recommend against doing that because word processors export HTML files with lots of useless junk code – so much so it may crash WL Mail on attempt to use it as a signature.

I use Outlook Express 6 and not Windows Live Mail. Will these instructions work if I’m using that software?

Yes, but the stationary folder on most XP computers is this:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Stationery

You will have to substitute My Stationary for the this folder if you want to do this in OE6 using the above instructions.

Also remember that signatures are not shared. If you use a signature in OE6, it will not import over to WL Mail so you will have to manually copy the files from the OE6 Stationary folder to the WL Mail one.

Using background images for web pages is something most people do not know how to do correctly. Typically most will use an image that is not suitable for the text on the web page, as some parts of the image will be light and others dark. In addition, the image looks terrible tiled.

A small tiled image is by far the best thing to use if you want a background image for your social profile, blog or web pages. Not only does it load very quickly, but also looks the same on all resolutions and with the right tile looks seamless.

But how do you create one of these? Where do you get ideas from?

That’s easy, use BgPatterns. It is an app that exists only in the browser and is super-easy to use. Many different types of tiles are available in all colors. You’ll have a perfect image for tiling in no time. See video below for details.

Also bear in mind creating tiled images works great for computer wallpaper as well, particularly on older computers with limited video display abilities. If the redraw speed on your video card is slow but you still want a nice wallpaper, a small tiled image is definitely the way to go.

With most digital cameras there is the ability to store photos in "RAW" format instead of the standard JPG/JPEG.

When you take shots to be stored in RAW, the first thing you notice is that it takes a really long time for the cam to finish storing the photo after taking the shot.

The second thing you notice is that it’s not the easiest thing in the world to work with if you don’t have the proper software to read the RAW format.

The third thing you notice is that it takes seemingly forever to get RAW format imagery off the camera because it’s just so honkin’ huge in file size.

Is there any particular advantage to using RAW?

Yes and no. More on that in a moment.

What does RAW mean?

RAW is a "minimally processed" digital image stored on your digital camera when the shot is taken. You can think of them as "unprocessed" photos.

Is RAW the same on all digital cameras?

NO. This is because digital cameras of different makes have different ways of producing an unprocessed image.

Yes, this is confusing but it’s the truth. When you take a photo "in RAW", the actual data of the image is different per make. Canon is different from Pentax is different from Casio is different from Nikon is different from Olympus, etc. You get the idea. RAW is not a universal format.

How do I work with a RAW image?

Typically you need the software that came provided with your digital camera to work with them at all.

Granted, Picasa does support many RAW formats from different manufacturers, however its editing capabilities are very limited. Better to use the software that came with the camera.

What is the reason I would want a RAW image?

Best possible quality and most editing capability. The RAW file gives you more control over the final image – particularly for print purposes.

When would be a bad time to use RAW?

When shooting/storing in RAW it takes the camera a long time to save the file because each one is humongous. If you’re doing fast-style photography, RAW is a bad idea.

When would be a good time to use RAW?

Portraits, i.e. shots where you can take your time, RAW may serve a good advantage to you.

If you want to learn more about the technical stuff concerning RAW, see the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_image_format

Situation: You’re going to upgrade your primary hard drive to something bigger, better and faster – however the primary hard drive is obviously what holds your operating system.

So now you’re faced with a choice.

1. Reinstall the operating system on the new drive and reinstall all your apps.
2. Use drive imaging software to copy everything from the old drive to the new one.

Continued

Whenever you take a photo with a digital camera the resulting JPEG file is obviously quite large both in dimensions and file size.

Many people like to send photos as file attachments in e-mail. While it’s true most e-mail services will auto-resize photos for you (like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail), the rest do not.

The Online Image Resizer at www.resize2mail.com is the easiest solution I found for a quick resizing of any GIF or JPEG image to attach to e-mail afterwards. All you have to do is browse for the image file, select the size you want, crop it using your mouse (it’s very easy) and then re-download the file to attach.

A web site like this is especially helpful if you’re with your digital camera at someone else’s computer and need to send out a quick photo e-mail. On your PC you have the image editing tools you like but not when using another computer.

Other ways of sending photos:

When I send photos to people I usually don’t send as a file attachment but rather just a link. This is due to the fact that many e-mail providers have over-zealous spam filters that flag any e-mail with an image in it.

Photo services that require a sign-up:

• Flickr
• Picasa
• Zooomr
• Photobucket
• MySpace

Each of these will allow you to send plain text URL links to any photo you have uploaded to your account.

And yes I know I linked the infamous MySpace, however they do make photo-sharing relatively simple.

Photo services that require no sign-up:

• ImageShack
• TinyPic

Can’t be bothered to sign up for yet another account? No problem. Just use one of the freebie no-reg-required sites above. I’ve been using ImageShack for a while now and it works great.

To note: These freebie no-reg sites are really handy to know when you need a quick-fix style way of sending images to someone else fast – not only for e-mail but for instant messaging conversations as well.

Here is a really cool “proof of concept” (as the author puts it) program: jpeg2css. The program literally does exactly as you would expect:

It takes a black and white jpeg and returns an html copy of the image created with text and CSS

Unfortunately, it only works with black and white images, but the idea and execution is really cool. There is a video posted on the site showing exactly how the program works.

Have fun with this one.

1. You do not need any paid software to edit photos and/or post them on the internet.
2. Most paid software (if you decided to go that route) will have professional features that you will never use.

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Concerning a digital camera, ISO denotes how sensitive the image sensor is to the amount of light present.

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For the most part, all graphics you deal with are traditional 2D raster (bitmap style) graphics. While many programs such as GIMP, Photoshop, Paint.NET, etc. are able to combine layers to produce a single image, the result is always a “flat” object. If you want to deal with 3D-esque graphics and manipulation power you get from them, vector graphics is the way to go.

If you are looking to explore vector graphics, give the open source editor Inkscape a look. Inkscape is a powerful editor which gives the ability to fully exploit vector graphics in a standards friendly XML format. There is extensive documentation and tutorials as well as a lengthy FAQ available to get you started. Additionally, you can view a lots of user contributed creations which demonstrate what others are using Inkscape to produce.

This is an exclusive RSS-feed-only wallpaper download. Click the image below to view, right-click (or command-click on Mac) and set as your wallpaper.

Standard

Widescreen

This is an exclusive RSS-feed-only wallpaper download. Click the image below to view, right-click (or command-click on Mac) and set as your wallpaper.

Standard

 
Widescreen

This is an exclusive RSS-feed-only wallpaper download. Click the image below to view, right-click (or command-click on Mac) and set as your wallpaper.

Standard

Widescreen

This is an exclusive RSS-feed-only wallpaper download. Click the image below to view, right-click (or command-click on Mac) and set as your wallpaper.

Standard

Widescreen