Is my HTML Email Signature Causing Delays Slow Loading Times in Outlook 2013?
If you suspect that your HTML email signature is causing a delay or slow loading times when composing an email in Outlook 2013, here's what you can do.
It's not the HTML part that is causing the delay, it's most likey the fetching images from the web server part.
You might have quite a few images in your HTML email signature or only a few, it's not really the amount that counts but the size of the images.
1 Step 1: Compress your images to make them smaller
If your images are PNG or JPG file types, simply go to tinypng.com and run them through their online compressor.
This will keep the images looking great but will reduce the file size significantly, usually anywhere from 30-80% of the original file size.
2 Step 2: Serve your images from a web server with a Content Distribution Network (CDN)
If you're an Email Signature Rescue member, simply upload the new compressed image files to your email signatures and turn on the CDN option in your settings. Your images will now be served from a server closest to your location which will make them load faster. You can see all the locations here.
If you're not an Email Signature Rescue member, upload your new compressed images to your web server with a CDN and put the new paths to those images in your HTML email signature file.
3 Step 3: Install your email signature using our Installer App or Advanced Manual Installation
If you install your email signature using the normal copy and paste method directly into the email signature settings in Outlook 2013, you might have problems with loading times. Instead, follow our Advanced Installation Guide for installing your email signature in Outlook 2013 or use our Outlook 2013 Installer App for Windows 7 and 10.
This will serve your images directly from the URL path in the HTML files (where you image is hosted on the web server), rather than letting Outlook handle the embedding of the images, which can sometimes result in slow loading times.
Now when your email signature loads in Outlook 2013, you should have no more issues with delays or loading times.
Not the fix you're looking for? It might not be your email signature. See this article on Outlook's website for more information about slow loading in Outlook 2013.