Show your Alphorix logo in every recipient's inbox (BIMI)

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is an email standard that lets Gmail, Apple Mail, Yahoo, Fastmail and others display your verified brand logo — the green-and-black "A" — right next to the sender name in every inbox.

Recipients see this instead of a grey initial:

A Alphorix <info@alphorix.net> · Reset your password

That single visual change is worth an average 10-30% lift in open-rates and dramatically reduces the odds your email is flagged as spam or phishing (which was already happening in your Outlook inbox screenshot).

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Prerequisites

BIMI has one hard prerequisite: your domain must already publish a strict DMARC policy. Check yours by running:

dig +short TXT _dmarc.alphorix.net

You need p=quarantine or p=reject and sp=quarantine or sp=reject. If your DMARC still says p=none, harden it first — untick "monitor only" in your DNS provider, then wait 24-48 hours to make sure nothing legitimate breaks.

You should also have working SPF and DKIM records already — Resend set these up when you verified alphorix.net.

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Step 1 — Convert the logo to BIMI-compliant SVG

BIMI requires a SVG Tiny 1.2 Portable/Secure (SVG-P/S) file. Regular SVGs from Illustrator or Figma won't pass validation. The requirements are:

• Square canvas (1:1 aspect ratio)
• Single-colour solid background (not transparent) — a dark navy or white square works well
• <title> element with your brand name
• No scripts, external references, animation, or filters
• Root element declares baseProfile="tiny-ps" and version="1.2"

Use the free converter at https://bimigroup.org/creating-bimi-svg-logo-files — upload your square "A" logo, download the compliant SVG.

Then host it publicly at https://alphorix.net/brand/bimi-logo.svg (or similar). It must be reachable via HTTPS with a valid TLS cert.

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Step 2 — (Optional but recommended) Get a VMC

Gmail requires a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) before it will actually display your logo. Apple Mail and Yahoo don't. Providers:

• DigiCert — ~$1,500/year
• Entrust — ~$1,200/year

You need a registered trademark for the logo (in any Madrid Protocol country). Turnaround is ~2 weeks. Skip this if the trademark isn't done yet — Apple Mail and Fastmail will still show your logo, and Gmail will pick it up the moment the cert is issued.

Once issued, host the .pem file at https://alphorix.net/brand/bimi-vmc.pem.

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Step 3 — Publish the BIMI DNS record

Add a TXT record on default._bimi.alphorix.net:

v=BIMI1; l=https://alphorix.net/brand/bimi-logo.svg; a=https://alphorix.net/brand/bimi-vmc.pem

If you're skipping the VMC for now, omit the a= parameter:

v=BIMI1; l=https://alphorix.net/brand/bimi-logo.svg;

Propagation typically takes 1-24 hours.

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Step 4 — Validate

Use one of these free tools to confirm everything resolves:

• bimigroup.org/bimi-generator/ — parses your DNS + SVG + VMC in one shot
• mxtoolbox.com/bimi.aspx — a straightforward TXT lookup

Send a fresh test email to a Gmail, Apple Mail and Yahoo inbox. The logo should appear next to your name within a few hours.

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Troubleshooting

• Logo doesn't appear in Gmail — Gmail needs the VMC. Without it Gmail silently ignores BIMI. Apple Mail and Yahoo will still show it.
• DMARC is p=none — BIMI is deliberately gated behind strict DMARC. Harden it first.
• SVG rejected — 90% of the time it's a hidden attribute (a <style>, a filter, or a viewBox mismatch). Re-export from the bimigroup.org converter and try again.
• Logo appears but is wrong colour — remove the background alpha; BIMI SVGs must be fully opaque.

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Cost recap

Item	One-off	Recurring
DMARC hardening	$0	$0
SVG conversion (self)	$0	$0
VMC (Gmail only)	$0	~$1,200-1,500/yr
DNS TXT record	$0	$0

Bottom line: for $0 you get logo-in-inbox on Apple Mail, Yahoo, and Fastmail. Add the VMC when your Alphorix trademark comes through and Gmail flips on too.