Wikipedia:Signature tutorial

Your signature, left on talk pages, is usually the first thing seen by users who meet you for the first time. As a result, many users choose to customise their signature, or 'sig'. These changes can vary from providing a link to your contributions page to completely redesigning the entire signature. This page will attempt to provide some helpful tips and advice for producing a unique signature.

Be sure to comply with WP:SIGAPP, a Wikipedia policy, which says "Your signature must not blink, scroll, or otherwise cause inconvenience to or annoy other editors."

Note that changing your signature will not change signatures that have already been produced, only ones that are created after save has been clicked.

Also note that the basics to changing the background of signatures is included on the Signatures page (though more in-depth instructions are soon to follow)

UserBob currently has a very simple signature:


 * UserBob (talk) 22:04, 11 February (UTC).

As a result, he would like to produce a more complicated signature.

Nickname
The easiest way to customise your signature is to change the 'Signature' section of the user profile preferences. This changes the name shown to other users to the new nickname.

For example, if UserBob typed "Bob" into the 'Signature' section of his preferences page and clicked 'save' (making sure the box marked "Raw signature" is not selected), his signature would change to


 * Bob (talk) 22:04, 11 February (UTC).

Note that it still links to User:UserBob, but says "Bob". This is useful if you no longer like your name, but don't want it changed altogether. However, it is good practice to have your nickname related in an obvious way to your real username; if UserBob chose the nickname "Jenkinson", this would be confusing, since other users would have no idea who "Jenkinson" was, even if UserBob's real name is Jenkinson.

Contributions pages
UserBob would like to link his signature to his contributions page. To do this, he needs to produce a 'Raw Signature'.

To create a link to your contributions page, click on My Preferences. In the Signature heading, there is a checkbox labeled Treat the above as wiki markup. Check this box, and then type into the "Signature" field:



and click "Save".

For example, if UserBob types



then his signature would become


 * UserBob (talk) (contribs) 22:04, 11 February (UTC).

These can be changed to use any other text. For example,, which would make


 * Bob Chat Tribs 22:04, 11 February (UTC).

Some users "hide" their talk page and/or contributions links; they are there, but are not labelled.


 * UserBob 22:04, 11 February (UTC).

This looks like the plain UserBob, but clicking on "Bob" leads to his talk page, as the code for it shows:.

To find these, hover your mouse over different parts of the signature. The status bar at the bottom of your web browser should show you where each bit of the signature leads.

 Getting colorful...

 * See WP:Manual of Style/Accessibility/CSS colors for text on white and WP:Colour contrast for advice on choosing colors that are accessible to people with color blindness or other conditions.

UserBob doesn't much like the color blue, and decides to produce a more colorful signature.

In order to produce a signature with colors other than blue (or red ), you'll need to use a bit of HTML, specifically the  tag.

If I put at the start of some text, all the text I write turns darkgreen. Note that the text will not turn back into black until I type.

Bob wants a darkgreen and maroon signature, so he types, producing


 * UserBob ( talk ) 22:04, 11 February  (UTC).

He can even use different colors in the same part. For example,  produces


 * User Bob ( talk ) 22:04, 11 February  (UTC).

Note that "User" and "Bob" are now different colors.

Also, some users don't use a white background; many users prefer light-colored text on a dark background and may have enabled the Gadget "Use a black background with green text on the Monobook skin". So, if you specify foreground colors, you should consider specifying background colors as well.

If you want to manually edit colors, as so;  everything typed becomes highlighted blue, and is in white text.

But, we know UserBob doesn't much like the color blue, so he chooses the colors greenyellow (for the text) and maroon (for the background). Therefore,  produces:


 * UserBob (talk)

But wait, the talk is displayed in blue with no highlight! The reason is simple, the text to be entered into preferences must include the  tag before the   linking. Also, due to the fact that UserBob is displayed as a link, the color change must be included in the area of the link.

That would look something like this:  in order to produce:


 * UserBob  (talk)

To increase the space around the text, use the css padding properties, where the padding sequence numbers are top right bottom left:, which produces:


 * UserBob  (talk)

In order to make your signature look more original, you can change its font:  to Georgia:


 * UserBob  (talk)

or even more unusual one:  (i.e. Blackadder ITC):


 * UserBob  (talk)

Note: The maximum length for a signature or underlying raw signature code is 255 characters including spaces. This may limit your ability to create more complex signatures. See WP:SIGLENGTH.

Fine tuning
UserBob is reasonably happy with his signature. However, there are still many other ways to alter a signature. The most commonly used are: adding undefined, undefined  ,  bold ,  italics  and    for special effects, and using special unicode symbols, such as ☯, ☺ and ★.

Some users may have other links in their signature. For example, Esperanza members had a green "e", which linked straight to Esperanza. So, if UserBob had joined Esperanza, his signature might have changed like so:




 * Us e  r Bob  ( talk )

Don'ts
Tempting as it may be, there are some things that should not be done, as they annoy editors or increase server load. These include:  Using pictures in your signature


 * [[Image:Crystal licq.png|20px]] Us e  r Bob  ( talk )[[Image:Crystal licq.png|20px]]

Big signatures


 * Us e  r Bob  ( talk )

Blinking signatures (most modern browsers will not display blinking text anyway)


 * Us e  r Bob  ( talk )

Signatures that include line breaks


 * Us e  r Bob  ( talk )

Or any mix of the above!


 * [[Image:Crystal licq.png|20px]] Us e  r Bob  ( talk )[[Image:Crystal licq.png|20px]]

Real-life examples
__ARCHIVEDTALK__ Here are some actual signatures contributed by actual editors. Edit this section to see the code for each. Feel free to share your own creation! One per customer, please. If you change your signature, replace your entry instead of adding a second one. (Do not add someone else's signature, no matter how interesting it is.) For more examples, see this gallery.

 tags were deprecated in HTML 4.0 and are unsupported in HTML5. This means that the popular browsers may drop support for them at any time. If your signature uses these tags, we ask that you remove them before adding your signature here. See existing examples below for how to achieve the same effect using and CSS properties. For more information, see this talk page discussion (it is an archived discussion and should not be continued there).

w.carter -Talk  13:45, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

 Deep  Glow 2009 (talk • contribs)

 ~Helicopter  Llama~  15:43, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

 ΤheQ Editor  Talk? 15:55, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

Cullen328  Let's discuss it  21:11, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

Brandon (MrWooHoo) • Talk to Brandon!  03:12, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

-  Cwobeel   (talk)  22:09, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Darylgolden(talk) 09:28, 20 August 2014 (UTC)

RomtamTalkToMe</b> 15:00, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

 Sounder Bruce  01:56, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

-- Chamith  (talk)  11:10, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

-- Orduin  ⋠ T ⋡ 23:04, 23 November 2014 (UTC)

Pam D  16:51, 25 November 2014 (UTC)

Ochilov  (talk)  15:57, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

aGastya    &#9993; let’s talk about it   :) 17:09, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

&#8213; Padenton &#124;&#9993;  08:09, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

--<em style="font-family:grafolitascript;color:#FF5198">♥Jewel-chanXOXO♥ <em style="font-family:grafolitascript;color:#FF5198">talk   09:54, 9 May 2015 (UTC)

-- <em style="font-family:Lucida Handwriting;color:#FF5198">adu ♣ <em style="font-family:Papyrus;color:#FF5198"> Let's chat    7:49, 2 June 2015 (UTC)

SONIC678 &#124; Hang out with me! 17:26, 13 June 2015 (UTC)

<b style="font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:#00FF00">MangoStone14</b><b style="font-family:Helvetica Neue;color:#00FF00">Let's interview</b> 8:15, October 2, 2015 (UTC)

~  Nott Nott  talk &#124;contrib 18:26, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

White Arabian Filly ( Neigh ) 19:57, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

<b style="color:#070">themidget17</b> ● blah blah blah 05:27, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Tom29739 [ talk ] 20:21, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

&mdash; D'Ranged 1 &#124;  VTalk  :  00:44, 26 February 2016 (UTC)       (The maroon and orange colors and stylized VT are references to my alma mater, VA Tech)

12:59, 27 February 2016 (UTC)   —‌(Had to get creative to be able to include curly braces and pipes within my signature. This sigstyle allows other editors to copy/paste my sig to ping me.)

<span style="font-family:'Wreathe','Centaur','serif';color:#2a1657;background:#e2daf1">—&#123;&#123;u&#124;Goldenshimmer&#125;&#125;&#124;✝️&#124;ze/zer&#124;😹&#124;T/C&#124;☮️&#124;John15:12&#124;🍂 20:28, 1 June 2016 (UTC) (Includes 's idea that's right above mine, cause it's AWESOME :) )

N atalie Desautels …as within, so without 21:34, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

• BalchMike      ⋠talk⋡ 22:05, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

  MediaKill13   (  talk  )   06:52, 9 August 2016 (UTC)

Level3Sentry ❯❯❯  Talk  01:06, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

 — Gestrid  ( talk ) 02:04, 7 October 2016 (UTC)

&#123;&#123;u&#124;Gamall Wednesday   Ida &#125;&#125;  19:05, 12 October 2016 (UTC) (Compact, "pingable" signature for long username, with userpage/talk/contribs links.)

JackOfPanTrades &#124; Card Hunter <sup style="color:#FFD700">(Converse intellectually)  19:49, 15 January 2017 (UTC)

&#8213; Mandruss  &#9742;  20:52, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

Deepro#mylifeas713 ❯❯❯  Wanna chat? 07:56, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

♠Dinah♠ 🎤 15:55, 19 August 2017 (UTC)

BrandonALF talk edits 23:59, 12 December 2017 (UTC)

jd22292 (Jalen D. Folf) (talk) 03:30, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

Spirit Prince 📞  21:26, 1 September 2017 (UTC)

いくらBraden1127 イクラꅇ 6:55, 6 November 2017 (UTC)

 Denied Club  ❯❯❯ talk?   07:46, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

 -- Midgetmore  ☀   |(talk to me)  13:05, 25 February 2018 (UTC)

HunterM267 talk 03:18, 13 March 2018 (UTC)

REAL MMB (talk) 07:53, 19 March 2018 (UTC)

Thegooduser  Let's Chat   (See my contributions)  01:55, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

YoloMaxi Leave a Message! 01:20, 26 April 2018 (UTC)

~ White  Paw  13:45, 14 July 2018 (UTC)       (still figuring it out)

Dannyyankee12 let's talk 16:15, 15 July 2018 (UTC)

Oshawott 12 ==== Talk to me!  03:11, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Liz <sup style="font-family: Times New Roman; color: #006400;">Read! Talk! 18:00, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

PorkchopGMX ( talk with me  -  what i've done ) 19:14, 3 January 2019 (UTC)

TruthToBeSpoken  (talk)  20:37, 22 January 2019 (UTC)

<span style="font-family:'Lato',sans-serif;color:#DC143C">Tsumikiria⧸ 🌹🌉 04:05, 28 January 2019 (UTC)  ←Install the beautiful Lato font or import in your commons.css for best experience. Used the special character ⧸ to stylize and avoid breaking line width.

&#8213; Vancian &#124; &#128172;  &#128220;   20:22, 1 March 2019 (UTC) ←Looks best with the Lobster font.

<span style="text-shadow: 4px 4px 20px lightskyblue, -4px -4px 20px HotPink;font-weight:bold;">Mooeena ● 💌 ● ✒️ ● ❓ 03:56, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Akber mamps  talk  01:05, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Genius Editor (Talk • Contribs) 15:09, 16 June 2019 (UTC)

<b style=background:#014fed;padding:3px><b style=padding:2px><b style=color:white>LewisTehMinerz</b></b><b style=padding:2px>💬</b><b style=padding:2px>✒️</b></b> 20:39, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

― Re alCy Gu y   - Talk? 23:22, 6 November 2019 (UTC)

Clover moss (talk) 16:44, 26 January 2020 (UTC)

— <b style="color:#29F">B.</b> <b style="color:red">L.</b> <b style="color:#080">I.</b> <b style="color:#808">R.</b> • <b style="color:#FA0">C</b> 21:48, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

James3141592  talk  01:27, 22 February 2020 (UTC)

Kaweendra  (talk)  14:53, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

<span style="font family:Lobster;text-shadow: 4px 4px 20px lightskyblue, -4px -4px 20px HotPink"> aurora :3  leave a message  17:09, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

&#123;{u&#124; Sdkb  }&#125;  talk 18:28, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

WBPchur  💬●✒️●💛 09:24, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

𝄞: JohnnyB𝄬  𝅘𝅥𝅮 Sing with me𝅘𝅥𝅮   03:13, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

Eladar (chat with me) 23:39, 2 May 2020 (UTC)

-- NGC 54  ( talk |  contribs ) 16:05, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

— &thinsp; J 947  [cont] 06:15, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

—Wei4 Earth (talk, contribs) 19:27, 9 May 2020 (UTC) ''This signature is 206 characters long and 208 bytes large under the 255-character limit for signatures (WP:SIGLEN guideline). It is compliant with the WCAG 2.0 AA level following Wikipedia's Manual of Style (MOS:COLOR guideline). For a list of my other signatures, see User:Wei4Earth/signature.''

✥Sailawen✥ ( Chat? ♠  My stuff... ) 16:15, 16 May 2020 (UTC)

 Squeeps10 Talk to meMy edits 02:59, 14 May 2020 (UTC) It's not as fancy as some of the ones above me but it's unique as far as I can tell.

Wikiffeine  •_•  00:02, 23 June 2020 (UTC) Also not as fancy, but I think the •_• sets it apart.

<b style="font-family:sans;background-color:paleturquoise;border-radius:7px 0 0 7px;padding:2px 5px;">DougInAMug</b> talk 00:02, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

 NASCAR Enthusiast  nyoom 21:33, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

FlowerPetals 📪  19:58, 17 September 2020 (UTC) My current signature, with some lovely dark colors with flowery script that pulls everything together.

<b style="font-variant:small-caps;border:2px solid #d32730;padding:0 9px;background:linear-gradient(#0842cd,#139c43);color:#f7eda1;border-radius:6px">Enjoyer of World</b> (talk) 13:23, 21 September 2020 (UTC)

 Heart  (talk) 03:32, 29 September 2020 (UTC)

 Zai talk  23:02, 27 May 2021 (UTC) This has an image in it.

Deditus Particulo Write to me 15:51, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

<b style="color:blue; text-shadow:aqua 0.2em 0.2em 0.4em;">CycloneYoris</b> <b style="color:purple">talk!</b> 10:16, 6 November 2020 (UTC)

— MrConorAE (👤U &#124; 💬T &#124; 📝C) 03:55, 24 November 2020 (UTC) Uses to make the "menu". Single-letter alternative links, for those that do not support emojis.

🦠🌀 𝕾𝖚𝖕𝖊𝖗 𝕮𝖞𝖈𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖈 𝕾𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖒 𝕮𝖔𝖗𝖔𝖓𝖆 🌀🦠 15:38, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Che es etro n246 talk 17:58, 7 December 2020 (UTC) Includes a white background to make sure colors comply with MOS:COLOR

<b style="background:#000;color:#FFF;padding:1px;">GMX</b><b style="color:#FFF;background:#04A;display:inline-block;padding:3px;vertical-align:-0.15em;font:bold 50%/1 sans-serif;text-align:center">ping!</b> 03:30, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

 SnazzyInfinity (chat? • what I've done) 05:10, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

<b style="font-family:Times New Roman;color:Teal;font-size:110%;">Idell</b> (talk) 12:40, 9 January 2021 (UTC)

<span style="font-family: MV Boli; background-color: black; color: greenyellow; padding: 2px 3px 1px 3px; ScienceFan66 ( talk ) 17:07, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

D&#124;Fletcher&#124;0306  Need me for something?  19:31, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

 — qaisjp (talk) (contribs) 23:23, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

🌳Quercus Oak🍂  22:11, 25 January 2021 (UTC)

Coding Cyclone  [citation needed] 01:10, 10 March 2021 (UTC)

--  Manasbose   (<b style="color:blue">talk</b> &#124; <b style="color:blue">edits</b>) 04:47, 9 April 2021 (UTC)

 Bsoyka ✉  15:17, 26 April 2021 (UTC)

Robin gunes ; 21:17, 2 May 2021 (UTC)

 Zai  (💬 • 📝 • ⚡️) (please ping on reply) 16:57, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

 Zai talk  17:49, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

02:24, 13 June 2021 (UTC) TOA The owner of all ☑️

BA CA   (talk to me) 18:18, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

— Pamphylian  ● 💬   21:10, 13 August 2021 (UTC)

<b style="color:white">Waddles</b> <b style="color:white">🗩</b> <b style="color:white">🖉</b> 16:48, 18 August 2021 (UTC) It took a few tries to get it to work properly, but I finally got it!

Dinosaur TrexXX33 (chat?) 12:17, 13 September 2021 (UTC)

TootsieRollsAddict  (talk)  07:41, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

16:32, 15 October 2021 (UTC)

—GξrЇnΔѦ JѲy‎ (флуд) 15:12, 27 December 2021 (UTC) Hey, whatsup!My experience over my signature:)

CertifiedAmazing2  wanna chat?  22:42, 21 January 2022 (UTC) First signature of 2022!

Castlepalace 13:15, 31 March 2022 (UTC)

— Mythdon ( talk  •  contribs ) 19:19, 6 April 2022 (UTC)

<span style="font-family:Copperplate Gothic;background-color:OrangeRed;border-radius:7px;text-shadow:2px 2px 4px#000000;padding:3px 3px;"> P h y s e t e r s ✉ 23:51, 11 April 2022 (UTC) Thanks to Purplewowies & ColinFine for their help!

QuinticFormula 🏳️‍🌈 (talk)  03:38, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

signed, 511KeV    (talk) 07:52, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

Myndex talk   11 May 2022

— Urban Versis 32KB ⚡ (talk 19:53, 29 May 2022 (UTC)

 ARandomPage  ( talk •  contribs ) 00:59, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

<span style="font-family:Segoe print; color:#FF8C00; text-shadow:skyblue 0.5em 0.5em 0.5em; font-weight:bold">Kpddg  (talk)  15:03, 24 July 2022 (UTC)

Angerxiety the ediot  (chat? ⋅ contribs to society ) 5:08, 8 October 2022 (UTC)

D2h ⌬  22:11, 17 November 2022 (UTC)

phrogge  'sup?   edits  02:56, 15 February 2023 (UTC)

<b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#C41E3D">ballads</b> <b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#1E2D2F">one</b> 05:18, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

-Asheiou  (they/them • talk)  16:10, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

—  Will • B  [talk] 05:52, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

<span style="background-color: black; color: white; padding: 2px 3px 1px 3px; Grumpylawnchair ( talk ) 18:54, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

--  ZooBlazer talk 19:51, 4 July 2023 (UTC)

<small style="color:#667;background:white;border:2px solid;border-radius:4px;padding:0 4px">SilverLocust 💬 22:49, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

CHÓ VÀNG HÀI HƯỚC 🗣️ 13:34, 24 September 2023 (UTC)

👤📝📖🔬🧪 08:50, 28 October 2023 (UTC)

<span style="transform:rotate(-5deg);display:inline-block;color:#9400D3">Darcy<span style="transform:rotate(10deg);display:inline-block;color:#0645ad">isvery cute (talk) 06:05, 10 December 2023 (UTC) (trying to stand out by using modestly rotated text, although it was hard to fit in the 255 char markup limit. There seems no existing policy on this approach, but I try to make the rotation small enough to not increase line spacing.)

<b style="color: limegreen">adamfra</b><b style="color: limegreen">@enwiki</b> :<b style="color: steelblue">~/talk</b>$ 01:56, 31 January 2024 (UTC) you might recognize this design if you use pop!_os

$Jayhawker6$【💬】 03:17, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

  [[User:CanonNi ]]  (talk • contribs)

&#123;&#123;u&#124; Sa An  Ke &#125;&#125; 21:38, 13 April 2024 (UTC)

<b style="color:darkred; text-shadow:gray 0.2em 0.2em 0.4em;">💥Casualty</b> • Hop along. •  01:18, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

Huggums537 Vote! (Guest🖋️book) or (Suggestion🗳️box)? 14:47, 16 May 2024 (UTC) I really tweaked it good so I could add in a voting poll!

Huggums537voted! (sign🖋️ The voting poll discussion resulted in this abridged version.

Helpful links

 * Web colors lists most usable colors
 * Help:Wikitext is a general guide to wikitext