How to embed images into emails in Outlook 2013/2016

Problem:

You are not able to embed graphics in emails and email signatures created in Outlook: if you add inline images in Outlook 2013 or 2016, they are visible when you compose your message, but they are not displayed in the recipients' inbox (Fig. 1.).

Fig. 1. This is how an image looks like if it's not correctly embedded in an email.

If you check the email's source code (by right-clicking the email body and choosing View Source from the shortcut menu), you can see that your image was not embedded but linked:

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">
  <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;">
  <img width="326" height="118" id="_x0000_i1025" src="file:///C:/Users/admin/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Signatures/Images/banner.png" name="_x0000_i1025"></span>
</p>

Solution:

In recent versions of Outlook, images added to emails (and to Outlook's email signature templates) are sometimes not embedded but linked. Such linked images are not displayed unless the resource in which they are kept is a location available to the message recipient.

To solve this issue, you can enable image embedding in Outlook by modifying your Windows registry. To do so, follow the steps below.

1. Open Windows Registry Editor (run regedit.exe via the Start menu).

2. Open the following key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\X.0\Outlook\Options\
   

   where X is the version of Outlook you are using.

   Be advised that Outlook 2016 is 16, but Outlook 2013 is 15 and not 13.

3. Find the following subkey and open it (if it does not exist, create it):

   Mail

4. Add a new value of the following type:

   DWORD (32-bit) Value

5. Provide the name of the value exactly as below:

   Send Pictures With Document

6. Modify (edit) the created value in the following way (see Fig. 2.):

   Value data: 1
   Base: Decimal

   
   Fig. 2. Editing the Windows registry.

7. Restart your Outlook.
8. Now, if you send an email and add an inline picture, this picture will be embedded by Outlook and will be visible to the recipient.

See also:

• Common image-related problems in email signatures