Create branded emails with customised layouts for Workspace Individual

Workspace Individual subscribers can fully customise email designs.

Important: You can also create branded emails with other Google Workspace editions. Learn more about creating branded emails with customised layouts for the following Google Workspace editions:

• Business Standard
• Business Plus
• Education Standard
• Education Plus
• Enterprise Starter
• Enterprise Standard
• Enterprise Plus

Customise default layout style and branding

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. At the top left-hand side, click Compose .
3. At the bottom of the window, click Layouts .
   • Tip: If you don't see Layouts , check More options .
4. If you haven't used Layouts before, click Default styling.
5. Customise default layouts with default styles:
   • Logo image
   • Colours
   • Fonts
   • Footer details, for example your business name, address and phone number.
   • Contact and social media links
6. Click Save Changes.
   • Tip: Style changes will apply across the default layouts once saved.

Create a new layout

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. At the top left-hand side, click Compose .
3. At the bottom of the window, click Layouts .
   • Tip: If you don't see Layouts , check More options .
4. Select a layout from the 'Default layouts' tab or from previously saved or shared layouts under 'My layouts', or create a new custom layout from 'My layouts'.
   • Tips: You can customise layouts if you go to the 'My layouts' tab. Layouts are also saved in Google Drive, where you can share them with other users. If you give someone permission to edit a layout, they can find and edit it within Gmail.
5. Click Edit layout.
   • Important:
     1. To avoid overriding layouts in the 'My layouts' tab that you would like to keep as a template, duplicate the layout and make edits to the copy.
     2. You can also access version history when you edit a layout to restore or make a copy of a previous version of a layout. At the top right-hand side, select More Version History.

6. Use the layout editor to insert, resize and rearrange text boxes, buttons, images and content.

   • Make sure that you update links for any buttons already present in the layout.
   • If you add images, Google recommends that you include alt text in case an image is not rendered. Alt text also helps people who use screen readers to better understand your branded email.
   • To change how a section looks:
     1. Point to a section on the page.
     2. On the left-hand side, click Background .
     3. Choose a style or add a photo.
   • To change an image in an email template:
     1. Click the image.
     2. Select the More options Action Menu Replace image Upload or Select.
     
     

     Add a theme to your layout

     Themes include options like custom colours, fonts, spacing density page frames:

     1. On the right-hand panel, click Themes.
     2. Under 'Custom', select Create theme .
     3. Enter a name for your theme.
     4. Select Next.
     5. Select a colour palette Next.
        • To choose specific colours for different parts of your site, select Custom colours.
     6. Choose your fonts.
     7. Select Create theme.

     Add a colour frame to your layout:

     1. On the right-hand panel, click Themes.
     2. At the top right-hand corner of the Theme that you want to add a colour frame to, select More Edit.
     3. Under 'Spacing', check the 'Show frame' tick box.
     4. Select the colour of the frame.

     Adjust the spacing in your layout:

     1. On the right-hand panel, click Themes.
     2. At the top right-hand corner of the Theme that you want to add a colour frame to, select More Edit.
     3. Under 'Spacing', select the Density dropdown and choose your preferred spacing (e.g. Compact, Cosy or Comfortable).

     Add social media links to your layout:

     • On the right-hand panel, click Insert Social links .
     • You can add a URL or email address for each social link.
     • Optional: you can also add a custom icon image for each social link.
       • Tip: For popular social media websites, Google Sites will automatically provide icon images.
     • Click Insert.
     • Click the social link icons to edit them. You can edit the icons' size, shape, style, colour and alignment.
7. To preview your layout, select Preview and toggle between mobile, tablet and desktop views.
8. Click Insert to add the layout to the Compose window in Gmail.

Important: After inserting the layout into the Compose window in Gmail, you can't change the contents of the email draft directly. To update the layout, click Edit on the top right-hand side and make changes in the layout editor. Clicking Clear  which removes the layout from the Compose window.

Duplicate, share or delete layouts

Duplicate a layout

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. At the top left-hand side, click Compose .
3. At the bottom of the window, click Layouts .
   • Tip: If you don't see Layouts , check More options .
4. Select a layout from under 'My layouts'.
5. Select More options Duplicate.
   • Tip: Your customised layouts are saved in Drive and can be reused if you go to the 'My layouts' tab. You can also share layouts with other users from Drive and collaboratively edit them.

Share a layout from Google Drive

1. On your computer, go to Drive.
2. Select the layout you want to share click Share .
   • Tips:
     1. Only users who have access to Layouts feature can edit layouts that you share with them. Other users can still preview it in Drive but they won't be able to edit in Gmail.
     2. Users that you've shared the layout with can only edit the shared layout from Gmail, and won't be able to edit it directly from Drive.
     3. You can share with specific people or with a group of people. Learn more about how to share files from Google Drive.

Delete a layout

1. On your computer, go to Gmail.
2. At the top left-hand side, click Compose .
3. At the bottom of the window, click Layouts .
   • Tip: If you don't see Layouts , check More options .
4. Select a previously saved or shared layouts under 'My layouts'.
5. Select More options Delete.

Understand limitations with layouts

Display fidelity limitations

Layouts are designed to look great across all email clients. However, some versions of Outlook use Microsoft Word to render HTML email, which may cause your layout to render differently from what you see in Gmail.

Character, image, tile limits

The following character, image and tile limits apply to layouts:

• Characters: 10,000
• Images: 40
• Tiles: 50

If you reach one of these limits, reduce the number of characters, images or tiles to continue editing and to send your layout.

Related resources

• Use built-in mail merge in Gmail to personalise emails
• Learn about bulk email best practices