**NOTE: YOUR IPAD MUST BE JAILBROKEN FOR THE FOLLOWING TUTORIAL TO WORK. SEE BOTTOM OF POST FOR JB LINK**

So I hate the default Apple signature. “Sent from my iPad” to me sounds extremely pretentious. No one cares what device you are using. Obviously you can change the default email in ‘Settings’, but being a designer I enjoy having a custom signature for people to view. Anyways, I adapted the current tutorials for iPhone CSS/HTML sig for my iPad, and here is the end result that you will be building:

As you can see, I have custom CSS, custom images, and custom HTML. The process is very simple, here is an overview of the steps we will be following (assuming your iPad is Jailbroken and has Cydia installed, if you don’t know how to do this you probably shouldn’t be messing with plists in the first place):

1. Enable SSH on iPad
2. SSH into iPad
3. Create Signature
4. Import Signature into iPad Plist File
5. Reboot and enjoy!

Let’s dive in!

1. Enable SSH on iPad

So in order to change the proper signature file we need to be able to SSH into the iPad. However, before we do this we need to generate the plist file, and in order to do that just go into your Mail settings on your iPad (Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Signature) and just type in anything. This will generate a plist file for the signature in the iPad file hierarchy, which will give us the ability to replace the default signature key.

Anyways, back to enabling SSH. Go into your Cydia app on your iPad, and do a search for ‘OpenSSH’. Install this file, and then do a search for ‘SBSettings’ and install that as well. You will need SBSettings to easily toggle SSH on/off. Once these are installed restart your device. You are now able to get into your iPad using SSH!

2. SSH into iPad

In order to SSH into your iPad, you’re going to need a couple of things:

• FTP Program – I recommend Panic’s Transmit, v4 just came out and it’s really slick (Mac only, PC user have fun).
• Your iPad’s IP Address – This can be found by connecting your iPad to same WiFi network as your computer. Once you are connected, drop down your SBSettings and write down your ‘Wi-Fi IP Address’ (the IP can also be found under the ‘WiFi’ section of the ‘Settings’ app).

Once you have these items, open up your FTP program and create a new connection. Make sure it is SFTP (which is SSH), type in your iPad IP into the ‘Server’ box. Type ‘root’ into Username field, and ‘alpine’ into Password field (without the single quotes). Keep these settings here, and we’ll come back and initiate this connection once we have made our signature.
**Security sidenote**
since MobileTerminal isn’t iPad compatible yet we can’t change these default usernames, so make sure to only keep your iPad connected to secured WiFi networks you trust, otherwise anyone can get into your file system and wreak some serious havoc.

3. Create Signature

So now to the fun part, creating our custom signature. I will put my code to the signature I used, and you can obviously edit/tweak/change to your heart’s content. In order to use images and have them viewable by recipients of your messages, you will need to use a dataURL maker. Once you generate this dataURL, paste it into the ‘src’ attribute inside of your img tags. Here is the code for my signature:

Now, we will move to importing this signature into the iPad plist file.

4. Import Signature into iPad Plist File

Go back to your FTP program and connect to your iPad. Once you are in the file structure, navigate to /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences. Download the file ‘com.apple.mobilemail.plist’. Duplicate this file and rename it as ‘com.apple.mobilemail.BAK.plist’ and store this somewhere on your computer in case you need to restore the original. Now, open the plist file (you will need a plist editor, one is installed with Apple Dev Tools or you can use something like Plist Editor). Then copy the signature HTML code you generated, make sure to remove all spaces and insert your dataURLs, and paste it into the SignatureKey value section. Disconnect from your SSH, you just input your new iPad signature!

5. Reboot Device

All you need to do now is reboot your device. Reboot your iPad, and send an email and you will see your new signature! Make sure to not edit this signature on the iPad itself, if you want to make any changes SSH in again and replace the old signature with the new one in the plist file.

Any questions or items that need clarification? Feel free to post in the comments and I will respond. Thanks!

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