---
summary: 'The signature designer: brand kits, layout, fields, conditional blocks,
  images inside the message, previews and versions.'
order: 3
title: Templates
path: concepts/templates
status: published
---

# Templates

Templates are built in the console's visual designer. You never write HTML: the designer
produces signature HTML that is known to render in mail clients, and a plain-text version to
go with it.

## Brand kits

A brand kit holds what several templates share: the logo, an icon, a banner image, colours,
fonts and a default disclaimer text. Templates refer to the kit, so changing a colour in the kit
changes every template that uses it.

## Layout

A template is a stack of **rows**; each row has one or more **columns**; each column holds
**elements**:

| Element | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Text | Free text with formatting and links. |
| Fields | Directory attributes such as name, title and phone numbers, inline or stacked, with labels and formatting (upper case, national or international phone format). |
| Image | An uploaded image, or the logo or icon from the brand kit, optionally linked. |
| User photo | The sender's own photo, square, rounded or round. |
| Social icons | Links to your social profiles, in colour or monochrome. |
| Button | A call to action. |
| Divider, spacer | Visual structure. |
| Banner | The currently active campaign banner. |
| Disclaimer | The legal text of the sender's legal entity, from the brand kit, or your own. |

Drag elements from the toolbox onto the canvas or reorder them in the layers panel; the side
panels can be collapsed when you need room. The document style sets the font, sizes, text and
link colours and the width.

## Conditional blocks

Every element can be shown always, only when a condition holds, or hidden when it holds.
Conditions look at:

* a **field**: empty, not empty, equals, contains, …;
* **group** membership;
* **recipients**: internal or external;
* **compose**: new message or reply.

A typical template shows the full signature with banner and disclaimer to external recipients
on new messages, and a single line on internal replies.

## Variants

Every template compiles into four variants per user: `external.new`, `external.reply`,
`internal.new` and `internal.reply`. Which one a message gets depends on its recipients (see
**Internal** under Domains) and on whether it is a reply. The preview shows all four for any
person in your directory.

## Images inside the message

Remote images are often not shown until the recipient allows downloads. For each image, logo,
user photo or set of social icons you can choose:

| Option | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Follow the template | Use the template's default (a checkbox in the document settings). |
| Inside the message | The image travels with the message as a related part, referenced from the HTML, and shows immediately. |
| Linked | The image is loaded from ScaiLine's image service when the message is opened. |

Embedded images travel with every message, so they are capped: 64 KB per image and 192 KB per
signature. Anything larger, and any image that cannot be fetched, stays linked; the message is
never delayed for it. The user photo and campaign banners are currently always linked. Mail
clients show embedded images inline; a few (Outlook desktop among them) may also list them among
a message's attachments.

## Publishing and versions

Edits are saved as a draft. **Publish** creates a new version and recompiles the signature of
everyone the template applies to, usually within seconds. The versions drawer lists earlier
versions; you can open, publish or restore any of them.

Which people get a template is decided by [rules](concepts/rules).