Wondering if there is a conventional way to begin your email signature and separate it from the text of your messages? Find out here how to employ the classic standard email signature divider derived from the Usenet signature delimiter.
First, How to Break 1 Spaghetto into 2
Why—oh, why!—is it impossible to take one strand of spaghetti at its ends and break it in half by bending? Why do we always get four pieces (or maybe three) instead of two?
This question has long been on scientific minds. There is, it seems, an answer, though: we’ve not been twisting the spaghetto right.
If you twist the strand of spaghetti at 270°, its untwisting counteracts the shockwave sent through the spaghetto as it breaks. It seems that wave otherwise causes the additional fractures.
Now, want a clean break between your email’s text and the signature? All it takes is two pieces of character and minimal twisting:
How to Use the Standard Email Signature Divider
Time needed: 1 minute
To separate your email signature from the rest of your message using the standard email signature divider:
- Put two dashes followed by a single whitespace character (“
--”) on a line of their own above the signature’s text and content.On a line of its own: It is important for the signature delimiter to appear on a line of its own with no other characters following or preceding it.
No special characters: Do not employ special characters (such as em-dashes or non-breaking space) for the signature separator; it has its roots in historic times when these characters were not commonly shared between computers.
Dashes by default: Some email programs and services will add the “sig dashes” separator automatically before your custom signature. Do send yourself a test message to find out if yours does. - Add all email signature content beneath that line.
More email signature etiquette: If you include a signature image, make sure it is not too big.
Example: If your signature is
Heinz Tschabitscher https://ladedu.com
, for example, with the standard delimiter, it becomes:
-- Heinz Tschabitscher https://ladedu.com
Wondering how much (and which) text to include after the separator? The Best Email Signature Size (Not Too Big, Not Too Small)
How to Use the Standard Email Signature Divider: FAQ
Can I copy and paste the signature separator?
Yes.
Use the button below to copy the standard signature delimiter for pasting into your email signature:
Standard email signature delimiter: “-- ” |
Why should I use the standard signature delimiter? What are the benefits?
The standard delimiter marks the beginning of the signature in a unique way.
This helps readers identify the end of messages; more importantly, though, it also allows email programs and services to identify signatures easily.
Some programs opt to treat signatures that start with a standard signature separator in a special manner. They may
- lay out the signature in a special color or font, for example, or
- hide the signature and all quoted text initially altogether, only to be viewed on demand.
Do I need to use the standard signature separator?
No.
If your signature block is obviously identifiable (which it certainly is), there is no special urgency to use the standard delimiter. It is a nice touch, though, and a place to display your internet acumen.
What is the history of the signature delimiter?
The standard signature delimiter has its origin in Usenet, a bulletin-board system available on the Internet since 1980.
As early as April 1983, messages could be found in newsgroups such as net.general that separat the message from auxiliary remarks and the signature with -- .
David Lawrence and Henry Spencer in Managing Usenet (1998) mention a signature “separated (…) by a delimiter line containing two hyphens (ASCII Code 45) followed by one blank (code 32)” (page 439) and lament that whitespace character so easily overlooked and dropped in transmission.
Still, that very delimiter including the whitespace character became the de-facto email etiquette standard.
Is the standard signature separator an Internet standard, and does it appear in an official RFC document?
The standard delimiter is mentioned as a convention used in Usenet news as well as email in Request for Comments document RFC 3676 (under “4.3. Usenet Signature Convention”).
(How to use the standard email signature delimiter updated March 2024)