FR3058605A1 - METHODS OF MAKING AND / OR RETRIEVING MULTIPLE-CLIQUABLE EMAIL SIGNATURES, E-MAIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM THEREFOR - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an email management system (M) comprising a signature (SG) designating an image (I) comprising one or more clickable zones (ZI1, ZI2). To make such a signature searchable by any electronic mail client (MUA), a signature server (LSI) is arranged to implement a method (200) for producing fragments (FI) of said image (I), in response upon receipt of fragment (RF) requests transmitted by such a mail client when interpreting a set of program instructions (SCP) describing said signature (SG) as an association of adjacent containers provided to host said image fragments (FI), or, for some, a hyperlink. The invention further relates to a method of assisting the development (100) of such an interoperable signature (SG).

Description

® FRENCH REPUBLIC

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY © Publication number: 3,058,605 (to be used only for reproduction orders)

©) National registration number: 16 60712

COURBEVOIE © Int Cl ⁸ : H 04 L 12/58 (2017.01), G 06 Q 10/10

A1 PATENT APPLICATION

©) Date of filing: 04.11.16. (© Applicant (s): MAILINBLACK Joint-stock company (© Priority: simplified - FR. @ Inventor (s): JEANNIN TIMOTHEE. ©) Date of public availability of the request: 11.05.18 Bulletin 18/19. ©) List of documents cited in the report preliminary research: Refer to end of present booklet (© References to other national documents (73) Holder (s): MAILINBLACK Société par actions sim- related: folded. ©) Extension request (s): © Agent (s): MED'INVENT CONSULTING.

METHODS FOR PREPARING AND / OR RETURNING MULTI-CLIQUABLE EMAIL SIGNATURES, ASSOCIATED EMAIL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

FR 3 058 605 - A1 (5r) The invention relates to an email management system (M) comprising a signature (SG) designating an image (I) comprising one or more clickable areas (ZI1, ZI2). To make such a signature viewable by any electronic messaging client (MUA), a signature server (LSI) is arranged to implement a method (200) for developing fragments (Fl) of said image (I), in response upon receipt of fragment requests (RF) transmitted by such a messaging client during the interpretation of a set of program instructions (SCP) describing said signature (SG) in the form of an association of adjacent containers designed to host said fragments of images (F1), or even, for some, a hyperlink. The invention further relates to a method for assisting in the preparation (100) of such an interoperable signature (SG).

i

Processes for developing and / or restoring multi-clickable email signatures, associated email management system

The invention relates to the management of body of e-mails, also called electronic messages or "mails" according to an English terminology, and more particularly to the signatures included in said bodies of such e-mails, in particular if these include graphic content comprising a or more clickable areas. In the remainder of the document, the term “clickable area” means an area of a first document associated with a link to a second document. These links are commonly referred to as "hyperlinks" and are particularly used in the Internet world. They thus make it possible to trigger the display, by means of an Internet browser or any other software allowing such viewing, of said second document in response to a click of the mouse, or of any other pointing device, on a textual element or graphic present in said area of the first document.

Email is today one of the main media used to exchange information between two or more people. This mode of communication is based on a service for the electronic transmission of a written message, and one or more documents, possibly attached to said written message, via a computer network, mainly the Internet, to one or more mailboxes. electronic mail from one or more recipients designated by the sender of said written message.

To send and / or receive an email, it is indeed necessary to have an email address and an email client (or alternatively an electronic portal allowing access to said email via an Internet browser).

In order to ensure good interoperability (i.e. so that an e-mail can be prepared, transmitted and then received and consulted by a plurality of IT tools), the routing or routing and the content of e-mails are governed by standards. However, a recipient may not receive a certified copy of the email drawn up and displayed on his screen by the sender of said message.

Indeed, at the origin of the service of electronic transmission of a written message, an email was a document which contained only text in standardized format ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange according to an Anglo-Saxon terminology). It therefore contained only the characters necessary to write in English. Such a message, devoid of accented or regional characters, did not raise any risk of being perceived differently on an extension of a recipient. Nowadays, many characters are available, including regional characters, and it is even possible to attach one or more files or documents to an email. This enrichment of e-mails was notably made possible by the advent of the MIME standard (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions according to Anglo-Saxon terminology or Multifunction Extensions of Internet mail according to French terminology).

The use of HTML (HyperText Markup language according to Anglo-Saxon terminology) also makes it possible to structure and format emails. Such language literally translates into “hypertext markup language”. Using predefined markers, which we will call “tags”, it is possible to structure a document and in particular to insert one or more hyperlinks which, when click-level tags, trigger the consultation of a second document or resource. For example, <a> is the opening tag for an element in a document, and </a> is the closing tag for that element. If said element includes the tag HREF = target.html, "target.html" being an attribute specifying the name of a document which one wishes to trigger viewing after a click, the element thus includes a clickable area. We will detail some main ones later.

HTML offers good interoperability, however some emails written using this language still pose a significant risk of loss of compliance, because some tags are not recognized by some email software, or even interpreted disparately . Such a risk of loss of conformity was also underlined in 2007 by the W3C Mail HTML seminar or World Wide Web Consortium according to Anglo-Saxon terminology from which the acronym W3C, standardization body, non-profit, responsible to promote the compatibility of technologies used in the Internet world.

To get around this difficulty, it is customary to comply with certain implicit rules when developing the body of an email. Likewise, knowing certain technical aspects makes it possible to avoid errors of understanding or communication. We will distinguish in the rest of the document, the body of an email from the header of this one. A header contains the contextual information of the e-mail: identifier of the sender, identifier of the recipient, a character characterizing a title or e-mail, date of sending of the e-mail, subject string or even attributes, such as the character emergency, etc. The

body of email is, when at him, encoded under the form one or more blocks of texts, images, of connections. The most of the bodies of emails feature a signature. This is usually common to a

plurality of e-mails produced by the same sender, and contains text or even images.

To avoid loss of compliance, some senders will favor simple email bodies in their structure and content. However, messages sent as emails give recipients a picture of the sender. Too sober an email can cause the recipient to misperceive the sender.

In addition, signing a message offers the sender the opportunity to convey additional information to the message as such, for example on its activity or on an event to which the sender wishes to draw attention, so fortuitous, of the recipient. It is therefore sometimes unacceptable or unfortunate to do without this opportunity for reasons of maintaining compliance.

Many players are thus trying to offer solutions for developing and adding an elaborate signature, sometimes selectable from a plurality, to an email.

However, to date, these solutions have encountered problems of loss of conformity of messages by the use of tags which are sometimes not recognized by hundreds of applications or email clients, or of limiting the richness of the content of said signature. In particular, when the sender wishes to integrate a signature comprising one or more clickable images into the body of his email, he has no other choice than to associate the entire image with a single hyperlink. The issuer is therefore forced to use various signatures if it wishes to draw the reader's attention to different events or news.

The invention thus makes it possible to resolve the limitations mentioned above by proposing on the one hand, a method for producing signatures or more generally email bodies comprising one or more clickable images and each associated with a plurality of hyperlinks and on the other hand, to ensure flawless compliance of said emails by favoring the use of main tags recognized by all email clients.

To this end, there is provided, first of all, a method of delivering a fragment of an image designated in a signature of an email. Such a method is intended to be implemented by a processing unit of a signature server comprising, in addition, communication means for receiving a request for content sent by a third-party electronic device and for sending, in response to a such content request, content in the form of a content message, said signature server cooperating with a data memory comprising a container associated with said signature. To offer excellent interoperability to an email exploiting such a signature, first of all, said container comprises a digital representation of the image in a matrix form of pixels whose respective integer values describe light intensities. In addition, such a method of delivering a fragment of an image comprises:

a step for identifying a content request, received by the communication means of the signature server, as a fragment request and for extracting therefrom data conveyed by said fragment request;

a step for decoding said data extracted from the fragment request and determining:

i. the value of the identifier of the container of the digital representation of the image;

ii. geometric data determining a fragment of said image by delimiting a subset of said representation of the image;

a step for reading, in data memory, the digital representation of the image from which the container identifier value has been extracted;

a step for producing a new digital representation, from the digital representation of the image and the geometrical data previously extracted, describing a fragment of the image;

a step for encoding said new digital representation describing a fragment of the image in the form of a content message;

a step for triggering the transmission of said content message intended for the third-party electronic device by the means of communication of the signature server.

To discriminate a fragment request among all other content requests, when these convey data consisting of a character string, the step to identify such a request as a fragment request can consist in recognizing in said character string. the presence of a predetermined keyword.

According to a first embodiment, it can be provided that:

- the geometric data extracted from a fragment request can consist of a set of integers respectively designating characteristic points of a polyline;

the step to produce the new digital representation describing the required image fragment which can then consist in creating a digital representation in a matrix form of pixels whose integer and respective values are identical to those of the only pixels of the digital representation of l image captured by said polyline.

As a variant, the invention provides that:

- the geometric data can consist of a quadruplet of integers describing:

- first and second vertical rows in number of pixels, from a reference pixel within the digital representation of the image, the value of the second vertical row being greater than that of the first;

- first and second horizontal rows in number of pixels, from said reference pixel within said digital representation of the image, the value of the second horizontal row being greater than that of the first;

- the step to produce the new digital representation (RFI) describing the required image fragment (FI) which can then

8 consist of create a representation digital under a form matrix of pixels of which the values whole and are identical those of

only pixels of the digital representation of the image of which:

- The horizontal rows are between said first and second horizontal rows;

- The vertical rows are between said first and second vertical rows.

In order to be able to adapt the operation of a signature server, the invention further provides a first computer program product comprising a plurality of program instructions which, when they are previously loaded into the program memory of such a signature server, said server further comprising a processing unit, communication means making it possible to interact with a third-party electronic device, a data memory, then executed or interpreted by said processing unit of said signature server (LSI), causes the implementation of a method of delivering a fragment of an image according to the invention.

Likewise, the invention relates to such a signature server comprising a processing unit, communication means making it possible to interact with a third-party electronic device, a data memory and a program memory recording the instructions of a first computer program product, as expressed above.

According to a second object, to simplify a signature of an email thus also a

Interoperable development,

The invention relates to a method for producing an email signature, said signature designating an image, said method being implemented by a processing unit of an electronic device further comprising a data memory storing a digital representation of the image in a matrix form of pixels whose respective integer values describe light intensities, an input interface. Such a method, comprising a processing operation for developing a representation describing said signature, a step for encoding said structure in the form of a message requesting the registration of said signature with a remote signature server, is arranged to include:

a step for collecting from the input interface N sets of input data, N being a non-zero integer, for which a set of input data comprises:

i. geometric data of a polyline delimiting a clickable area;

ii. a character string translating a hyperlink associated with said image area;

a step for determining a fragmentation grid from said geometric data from said N sets of input data.

Such a method is arranged, according to the invention, so that the processing for developing a representation describing said signature consists in the development of a set of program instructions, said program instructions being chosen for:

be automatically interpreted by an e-mail client, implemented by a third-party electronic device, ίο triggering a graphic rendering of an e-mail comprising the signature and, jointly translating an association of adjacent containers of fragments, associated respectively with requests in fragment , said requests being interpretable by a signature server in accordance with the invention, as described above, and each conveying data among which:

- the value of a container identifier of the digital representation of the image;

- geometric data determining a fragment of said image by delimiting a subset of said representation of the image, said geometric data being determined from the fragmentation grid.

According to a preferred embodiment, the invention provides that:

the geometric data taken from the input data can describe a rectangular polyline;

the step for determining a fragmentation grid from said geometric data from said N sets of input data which can therefore consist in determining [2N + 1] horizontal tabulations and [2N + 1] vertical tabulations with regard to a pixel of reference of the representation of the image;

the processing for developing a representation describing said signature in the form of a set of program instructions which may consist in producing one or more program instructions for:

i. describe a table of [2N + 1] ² containers of image fragments, divided into [2N + 1] rows and [2N + 1] columns;

ii. the geometric data conveyed by each fragment request delimiting the image fragment being determined according to the horizontal and vertical tabulations previously determined respectively.

As a particularly advantageous embodiment and favoring the deployment of the invention, the set of program instructions produced to describe the signature can be in accordance with the programming language "HyperText Markup Language" according to English terminology.

To cause the implementation of such a method of developing an interoperable signature, by a large majority of existing electronic devices, the invention provides for adapting the operation of such devices by a second computer program product comprising a plurality of program instructions which, when it is:

- previously loaded into the program memory of an electronic device, said electronic device further comprising a processing unit, communication means making it possible to interact with a signature server, a data memory and an input interface,

- Then executed or interpreted by said processing unit of said electronic device, causes the implementation of a process for developing a signature of an email according to the invention.

Thus, the invention also relates to an electronic device comprising a processing unit, communication means making it possible to interact with a remote signature server, a data memory, an input interface and a program memory recording the instructions of such a second computer program product according to the invention.

Finally, the invention relates to any email management system, as soon as it comprises a signature server in accordance with the invention, and said server cooperates with an email client of an electronic device by means of a or several requests in fragment of an image designated in a signature of an email displayed by said email client.

Advantageously but optionally, such a system may also include a second electronic device cooperating with said signature server by means of a message requesting the registration of said signature with the signature server, said second electronic device being adapted by the installation in a program memory of a second computer program product as mentioned above and in accordance with the invention.

Other characteristics and advantages will appear more clearly on reading the description which follows and on examining the accompanying figures, among which:

- Figure 1 describes an exemplary architecture of an email management system according to the invention;

- Figure 2 describes an example of a process for developing and / or making available an email signature according to the invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B respectively illustrate two examples of a signature comprising a cliguable image encoded according to a method of preparation and / or provision of an email signature according to the invention;

- Figure 3 describes a method of delivering a fragment of an image of a signature implemented by an email signature server adapted according to the invention.

FIG. 1 presents an exemplary architecture of an email management system M according to the invention. As mentioned above, an email M mainly consists of a header E and a body MC. The latter may include text or other figurative or semi-figurative elements. Said body MC generally includes a signature SG.

Whether he is the U1 sender or the potential U2 or U3 recipient of an email, each user uses MUA electronic messaging software implemented by an electronic device, such as a personal computer Dl, a smartphone D2 or a tablet D3. . Such MUA electronic messaging software or client is generally called a User Email Agent, or Mail User Agent according to English terminology. Most of such MUA clients are not active, or implemented, when the user wishes to prepare an M email and then send it or when said user wishes to consult addressed.

of

The e-mails which have been produced by the user U1 are recorded and hosted by a server or MTA e-mail transfer agent, generally known by the English terminology Mail Transfer Agent.

The latter cooperates, via a network, generally the Internet, with an email delivery agent MDA, generally known by the Anglo-Saxon name Mail Delivery Agent, associated with the recipient U2 or U3, which stores the emails addressed to said recipient U2 or U3 , like a letter box or mailbox according to Anglo-Saxon terminology.

Said MDA email delivery agent cooperates with the software or email client MUA of said recipient U2 or U3, so that the emails can be downloaded, manually or automatically, then viewed by said user U2 or U3 on the screen of their device. electronic D2 or D3.

There are already service providers making it possible to centralize a bank of SG signatures available for a user who has subscribed to this service, in this case the user U1 in FIG. 1. For this, an LSI signature server stores one or more signatures SG, that is to say that said server LSI allocates a composite recording in one of the data memories MD with which it cooperates, said recording generally comprising a text and / or an image which may be clickable. During the installation of the messaging client MUA of the user U1 or on requests triggered manually or automatically, said client MUA offers said user U1 to select a signature SG from a plurality available by means of an appropriate graphical interface. The user U1 can thus integrate into the body MC of an email M the content of the signature SG selected. Said MUA client thus cooperates with the LSI server by means of RS requests to request the downloading of content of SG signatures from the LSI server, said content being transmitted to the MUA client by SS messages arranged for this purpose.

Such an email management system is adapted according to the invention in that the LSI signature server can implement an innovative method of drawing fragments of images on the fly, hereinafter called "fragment (s)" for the sake of simplification, and of sending such fragments, in response to a request in RF fragment sent from a conventional MUA messaging client. Said fragments FI of the same image I, some of which are clickable because associated with hyperlinks which may be different from one another, are produced, then sent by messages SF, by the LSI server to the messaging client MUA requesting said fragments. Said requesting client may be that of a publisher and future sender of an email integrating the signature designating image I or that of a recipient of such an email. The RF and SF messages result from a clever exploitation of a tabular representation of images contained in an SG signature. Such a representation can result in a set of program instructions or SCP script, for example a succession of tags if, preferably but not limited to, such an SCP script uses the HTML language. Unlike the state of the art, an image I integrated into the body MC of an email M is not conveyed as such by the body of said email, nor even attached to it as an additional piece . The invention provides that said image I is reconstructed on the fly, like a dynamic puzzle, when editing or viewing said body MC of the email M. The invention also provides for adapting or providing MAA software editing SG signatures including a clickable image, used by user U1 or by a user U4 responsible for designing such SG signatures. Such an MAA tool is designed to be implemented by an electronic device Dl or D4, such as a computer or any other electronic object capable of implementing said software. This ensures cooperation with the LSI signature server by means of STS requests making it possible to load, from the device D1 or D4 implementing the agent MAA, into the memory of the signature server LSI, the body SGC of a SG signature designed by user U1 or U4. Said SGC body can be associated with a header or more generally with one or more EGC attributes governing access to said SG signature, like those currently managed according to the prior art. The cooperation between the MAA agent and the LSI server also allows the user U1 or U4 to collect, by RDS messages, the content of a signature SG already registered in the LSI server for editing or updating. day said signature SG prior to a new recording thereof in said LSI server.

FIG. 2 respectively describes a method 100 of producing a signature SG comprising an image I of which an area ZIn is clickable and optionally loading said signature SG into a memory of a signature server LSI. Such a method 100 is intended to be implemented by a processing unit of an electronic device operated by a signature creator SG, for example the user U4 described in connection with FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 will later describe a method 200 of developing and transmitting a fragment FI of such an image I intended for a messaging client MUA of a user sending or receiving an email M whose body MC includes said signature

SG. Such a method 200 is intended to be implemented by a processing unit of an LSI signature server.

The term “processing unit” is intended to mean, in the remainder of the document, any processor, microprocessor and / or microcontroller capable of cooperating with one or more memories and suitable for automatically implementing a method 100 or 200, for example, by interpreting or executing instructions from a computer program P100 or P200 previously loaded into one of said memories. Generally, such program instructions are recorded in a program memory integrated or cooperating with said processing unit, memory is shown, or referenced, in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 thus describes a method 100 of producing an email signature SG M comprising an image I comprising a clickable area ZIn. A first example of image I and of developing an SCP script, expressed in HTML language, describing or representing said image I is illustrated by FIGS. 2A and 2B.

According to FIG. 2A, the image I comprises only one clickable zone or region ZI1 whereas, according to FIG. 2B, said image I comprises two clickable zones ZI1 and ZI2 associated respectively with separate hyperlinks.

The example of implementation of a method 100 described in connection with FIGS. 2, 2A and 2B is based on the HTML language. In order to offer excellent interoperability, an SCP script, that is to say a succession of instructions or tags expressed in said HTML language, generated by said method 100 and describing a clickable image I mainly relies on the <table> and <img> tags, interpreted in a consistent and identical manner by the MUA email clients currently available.

Let us briefly recall the syntax linked to these two tags.

The <table> tag is a container widely used in internet pages. It facilitates the formatting of information in the form of a table or a table, by cutting into lines and cells of configurable sizes. Said <table> tag itself relies on the <tr> and <td> tags for the formatting of the elements within the table. Thus, the <tr> tag is used to create a new line and the <td> tag is used to create a cell within a line. The <table> tag can have one or more attributes to determine display properties of

Among the "cellspacing" specifies a spacing in number of pixels between two adjacent cells within the same line. The "cellpadding" attribute specifies a space in number of pixels between the edge of a cell and its content. Other attributes such as or "border-collapse" determine possible borders materializing the cells, said borders can also be invisible if necessary.

the table, "style"

The main display,

The "src" attribute.

It's in

lie a picture to a document in by The intermediary from 1' attribute using especially of way r of this attribute "Src : ", than .e do not resort to of tags

raising interoperability problems, such as the <map> tag sometimes used to determine a clickable area of an image. An SG signature prepared in accordance with the invention thus remains compliant, after having been integrated into the body MC of an email.

M, during the consultation of said email M by a recipient.

Let us describe Figure 2A. This illustrates an image I of which a digital representation RI in the form of a matrix of pixels comprises several semi-figurative headings (that is to say comprising an illustration and / or a text). By abuse of language, let us mention that image I extends on a height HM of three hundred pixels and on a width LM of five hundred pixels. Such an image I is akin to five headings separated graphically by horizontal and vertical lines. Each section contains a text, "Text 1", ... "Text 5". Certain headings also include a drawing. For example, the section containing the text "Text 2" also includes an area circling said text. In the same way the text "Text 5" is written in a frame.

FIG. 2A also illustrates, by hatching, an area ZI1 created by the designer of the signature SG, by means of a suitable input interface, advantageously graphic, associated with a pointing device, the perimeter of which is materialized by a polyline of rectangular shape, the geometrical data of which are known, expressed for example in the form of a series of numbers of pixels or rows, expressed from a reference point of image I, in this case the top left corner of said image I, ie the pixel of coordinates (rh = 0, rv = 0) where rh signifies a horizontal row in number of pixels and rv signifies a vertical row in number of pixels. According to the example described in connection with FIG. 2A, an area ZI1 has been created whose top left corner is the pixel of coordinates (42.33), whose width is one hundred ninety-six pixels and whose height is of seventy-two pixels.

Said designer wishes to make the interior of said polyline clickable. Thus, by means of a suitable input interface, for example a keyboard, it informs the content of a HREF1 hyperlink, in this case "www.page.html" according to the example described by FIG. 2A.

A method 100 according to the invention, described by way of nonlimiting example in FIG. 2, may include a step 101 for selecting or developing an image I, intended to be designated or used in the body of an email M. A such a method 100 includes a step 102, possibly iterative, for determining one or more zones ZIn on the image I and associating with said delimited zones ZIn a hyperlink HREFn determined to make said zones ZIn clickable.

According to the example described in connection with FIG. 2A, the zone ZI1 was created in step 102. The processing unit implementing said method thus knows the geometric data of said zone ZI1. By way of nonlimiting example, said geometric data of a zone ZIn can consist of a quadruplet of integers ZUn, ZDn, ZLn and ZRn, describing respectively, in number of pixels from the top left corner of the image I:

- ZUn: : the vertical row of pixel describing the corner high left of the area: ZIn; - ZDn: : the vertical row of pixel describing the corner low left or right of the ZIn zone; - ZLn: : the horizontal row of pixel describing the corner high or bottom left of the area ZIn; - ZRn: : the horizontal row of pixel describing the corner high or bottom right of the area: linen. According to 1 ' example illustrated by the Figure 2A, the area

ZI1 is therefore characterized by the quadruplet of integers: - ZUn = 42;

- ZDn = 114;

- ZLn = 33;

- ZRn = 229.

The method 100 described in connection with FIG. 2 now includes a step 103 to define horizontal and vertical tabulations in order to size the future fragments FI of image I.

When an image I comprises N clickable zones ZIn (where 1 <n <N) of substantially rectangular shapes, [2N + 2] horizontal tabulations ΤΗ0 to TH2N + 1 and vertical tabulations TV0 to TV2N + 1 are determined in step 103 Thus, the number of fragments FI to be dimensioned is equal to [2N + 1] ² , ie in this case nine (because N = 1) for the example illustrated by FIG. 2A or twenty-five (because N = 2 ) for the example according to FIG. 2B which we will describe later where two zones ZI1 and ZI2 are clickable.

The horizontal tabulations THi (where i is an integer such that 0 <i <2N + 1) result from an ordering operation in ascending order of the elements ZL1 to ZLN and ZR1 to ZRN, originating from the N quadruplets describing the N clickable zones, to which are added the left Lm and right LM limit values of the image I considered, that is, in this case on the image I illustrated in connection with FIG. 2A, Lm = 0 and LM = 500.

The vertical tabulations TVj (where j is an integer such that 0 <j <2N + 1) result from an ordering operation in ascending order of the elements ZU1 to ZUN and ZD1 to ZDN, derived from the N quadruplets describing the N clickable areas, to which the high Hm and low HM limit values of the image I considered are added, that is, in this case on the image I illustrated in connection with FIG. 2A, Hm = 0 and HM = 300.

The different horizontal and vertical tabulations thus created constitute the equivalent of a fragmentation grid, part of which, image fragments will be sized.

The method 100 now includes a processing 110 to develop a set of program instructions or tags intelligible to any MUA electronic messaging client. Such processing 110 may include, by way of example, a step 111 to initialize a table or table structure whose object consists in describing the image I, including the clickable area ZI1, such as a puzzle of nine fragments FI d 'image, as described by the broken lines in Figure 2A, from the horizontal and vertical tabulations developed above and constituting a grid of fragmentation. According to an example of a preferred but nonlimiting application of a method 100 based on the HTML language, an SCP script developed by the processing 110, comprises a first tag of type <table> such as:

<cellspacing table = O cellpadding = O style = border-spacing: 0; bordercollapse: collapse;>

According to this example, the attributes “cellspacing” and “cellpadding” specify that no space is to be provided between the fragments of images which will be expressed subsequently in the form of cells of a table. Likewise, the values of the "style border" and "border-collapse" attributes specify that no border delimiting said cells should be visible.

Step 111 also consists in initializing the index j, associated with the vertical tabulations TVj, so that said index j takes the value 0.

According to the example described by FIG. 2A, the image I comprises a number N = 1 of clickable areas. The implementation of a method 100 will now make it possible to describe image I in the form of a structure in fragments of said image I, more precisely to constitute an association of containers, for example in the form of a table of 2N + 1 = 3 lines, each comprising 2N + 1 = 3 adjacent cells or containers. Each cell includes one or more program instructions expressing a fragment request, interpretable by an LSI signature server according to the invention, conveying data among which:

the value of an identifier of a container RSG associated with the signature designating the image I, said container RGS being written into a data memory MD of the signature server LSI;

- geometric data delimiting a fragment FI of said image I by delimiting a subset of the image (I), said geometric data being determined from the fragmentation grid.

The processing 110 of the method 100 then comprises a step 112 for, on the one hand, initializing the index i associated with the horizontal tabulations THi, the latter taking a zero value and, on the other hand, for adding an instruction for creating a line in the table initiated in step 111. This line will correspond to an area of the image I located above the upper limit of the area ZI1 determined by the value of the integer ZU1. The SCP script thus includes a <tr> tag to create said line.

The method 100 therefore comprises a series of steps 113, 120, 114, 115, said series being implemented iteratively as long as the value of the index i remains less than the value 2N + 1 (situation represented by l 'step 115 in Figure 2 and by the link 115-y), or the value 3 for the example described in Figure 2A where N = 1.

The step 113 consists of geometrical, these subsequent 120 aiming at the current of the table, a fragment of image FIi, j, to calculate parametrizing allocating in data a the j * associated cell step line to a soon developed and transmitted by the LSI signature server in response to the interpretation of an RF fragment request whose geometric fragment data conveyed by this are defined in step 113. Thus, said cell is determined to be the future container of said fragment FIi, j . Thus, at each iteration of step 113, said geometric data, delimiting the i ^th fragment FIi, j fruit of a request in RF fragment specified in the i ^th cell of the j ^th current line, can be defined in the form a quadruple of integers, Ui, j, Di, j, Li, j and Ri, j, for which:

vertical row of the top left pixel of the fragment

- Ui, j: designates the corner Fii, j;

- Di, j: the vertical rank of the pixel describing the bottom left or right corner of the fragment FIi, j;

- Li, j: the horizontal rank of the pixel describing the top (or bottom) corner to the left of the fragment FIi, j;

- Ri, j: the horizontal rank of the pixel describing the top (or bottom) right corner of the fragment FIi, j.

The values of the members of said quadruplet are initialized in step 113, from the values of certain horizontal THi or vertical tabulations TVj determined previously, as follows:

- Ui, j = TVj;

- Di, j = TVj + 1;

- Li, j = THi;

- Ri, j = THi + 1.

According to the example of the first fragment illustrated in FIG. 2A, the FI0.0 is determined by the quadruplet of integers (U0.0 = 0, DO, 0 = 42, LO, 0 = 0, RO, 0 = 33).

Step 120 consisting of creating a cell or container in the current line advantageously consists of three sub-steps 121, 122 and 123.

Step 121 may mainly consist in producing in the SCP script, according to the example described in connection with FIG. 2A advantageously based on HTML, a <td> tag followed by an <img> tag having as argument src a character string comprising fields concatenated via a determined separator, in this case the '/' separator. Said character string produced in step 121 specifies or encodes a keyword "fragment", characteristic of an image fragment management, keyword which will be exploited by the method 200 described later, a file name or more generally an identifier of a container of a digital representation RI of the image I recorded by the signature server LSI (identifier corresponding to “img.jpg” in the example of FIG. 2A) and the parameters for future development by the LSI signature server of a fragment FI of said image I. Said character string, argument of the “src” tag can constitute a URL, Uniform Resource Locator according to English terminology, conveyable by the HTTP protocol, HyperText Transfer Protocol according to Anglo-Saxon terminology or literally "hypertext transfer protocol", client-server communication protocol developed for the Internet world. Such a URL conveyed by the HTTP protocol will constitute a RF fragment request sent from a conventional MUA messaging client when said client triggers the display of the body MC of an email M containing a signature SG designating the image I.

HTTP (or Saxon), geometric using one to the first as an argument as well

So the cell tag in the table

According to the example of FIG. 2A, the parameters (or geometric data) of future development by the signature server LSI of a fragment of said image I mentioned previously correspond to fields of respective values Ui, j, Di, j , Li, j and Ri, j calculated in step 113. These values are advantageously encoded and concatenated downstream of a separator for example “? "

Indeed, the syntax of a character string defining a request transmissible by the query string protocol according to a terminology angloexpressed in HTML language, comprises a plurality of fields separated by the symbol. Each of said fields consists of a field-value pair corresponding to a field name and to a content of said field, separated by the symbol '='. For example, such a string can be written in the form:

? fieldl = valuel & field2 = value2 & field3 = value3 where the fields fieldl, field2 and field3 take respectively the values valuel, value2 and value3.

Thus, the geometric data "upper" takes the value of Ui, j, the geometric data "lower" takes the value of Di, j, the geometric data "right" takes the value of Ri, j and the geometric data "left" takes the value of Li, j. Said data can be concatenated and separated with a separator such as '&' for example.

<img> associated with can take scr = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 33 & left = 0.

In the event that the fragment FIi, j dimensioned is covered by a clickable ZIn area, the SCP script comprises a program instruction specifying the hyperlink concerned. For this, step 120 includes a sub-step 122 of testing the coverage of the current fragment by a clickable area ZIn defined in step 102. For this, it suffices to compare the geometric data of the present fragment with that of the clickable areas ZIn. If so (situation symbolized by the link 122-y in FIG. 2), step 120 comprises a sub-step 123 for adding in the SCP script, a tag <a> with the address "href" as the argument or URL designating the web page that you want to reach. In connection with the fragment FI0.0, of FIG. 2A, this is not the case (situation symbolized by the link 122-n in FIG. 2). Step 120 ends with the addition in the SCP script of the cell closing tag </td>.

The method 100 increments the value of the index i, in a step 114, and if the value of the latter is less than 2N + 1 (situation symbolized by the test 115 and the link 115-y in FIG. 2), a new iteration of steps 112, 113, 120 and 114, makes it possible to create a second cell in the current row of the table, said cell being associated with a second future fragment Fi, j of image I. When the 2N ^th cell of the current line has been created (situation symbolized by test 115 and the link 115-n in FIG. 2), the line closing tag </tr> is written, in step 115, in the SCP script. The index j is incremented by one in a subsequent step 116.

If the new value of said index j is less than 2N + 1 (situation symbolized by test 117 and the link 117-y in FIG. 2) new iterations of steps 112, 113, 120, 114, 115 are triggered by processing 110 of method 100, to register the appropriate tags in the SCP script to construct a second row of table, and so on, until the value of the index j reaches the value 2N + 1 (situation symbolized by the test 117 and the link 117-n in FIG. 2), sign that the last cell of said table has been generated. Step 117 writes the table closing tag </table> to the SCP script.

The SCP script thus developed and associated with image I, not fragmented, constitutes the signature SG. This can be transferred to the storage means of an LSI signature server according to the invention in order to be used. Such a transmission results from an encoding 130 of the image I and of the SCP script in the form of an RSS message receiving the registration of said signature with a remote LSI signature server, for example.

In the end, as shown by way of example in FIG. 2A, an SCP script is generated.

FIG. 2B describes a second example of image I comprising a plurality of clickable zones ZI1 and ZI2 (N = 2), represented by two hatched areas in FIG. 2B. In connection with the example of description of a process 100 of FIG. 2, the creation of a table of 2N + l = five lines each comprising 2N + l = five cells will be programmed in the form of an SCP script , said cells being provided for respectively triggering the loading and display of twenty five FI fragments of image I. The cells are shown by broken lines in FIG. 2B. Image I according to FIG. 2B is identical to that of FIG. 2A. Only a second zone ZI2 has been added, the zone ZI1 being identical to that of the previous example.

Thus, the zone ZI1 is therefore characterized by the quadruplet of integers:

- ZU1 = 42;

- ZD1 = 114;

- ZL1 = 33;

by characterized fragments, associated (www.pagel.com), for

- ZR1 = 229; and the zone ZI2 is a quadruple of integers:

- ZU2 = 75;

- ZD2 = 244;

- ZL2 = 271;

- ZR2 = 365.

We can notice that according to this example that the vertical tabulation associated left or right bottom corner of the zone ZI1 (value ZD1) is greater in value than that (ZU2) associated with the top left or right corner of the zone ZI2. The clickable zones ZI1 and ZI2 will therefore be described in the form of two pairs of adjacent cells, future containers of two pairs of ZI1 and HREF2 le at the hyperlink HREF1 (www.page2.com) for the zone ZI2

The SCP script, generated by a method 100, an example of implementation of which has been described previously in connection with FIGS. 2 and 2A, applied to a signature SG comprising a clickable image described by FIG. 2B, can advantageously result in the instructions in HTML language illustrated by said FIG. 2B.

Let us now study a method for delivering a fragment FI of an image I of a signature SG of an email M, such as method 200 described by way of nonlimiting example in FIG. 3. Such a method is implemented by the processing unit of an LSI signature server adapted according to the invention.

Such a signature server, such as the LSI server described in FIG. 1, comprises a processing unit and communication means allowing it to interact with one or more third-party electronic devices, for example by receiving requests, in particular requests in content, emanating from said third-party electronic devices, implementing for example a MUA messaging client or an agent or client for designing MAA signatures. Said processing unit and said communication means of such an LSI signature server are not shown in FIG. 1 for the sake of simplification. In response to the reception of such a content request, content can be produced by the processing unit. As a variant, said processing unit can simply read such content from a data memory MD with which it cooperates. In this case, said content request conveys an identifier of a container or more generally any means making it possible to identify a record hosting said content within said data memory MD. The processing unit encodes said content prepared or read in the form of a content message and then triggers the transmission of said content message to the requesting electronic device by said communication means of the LSI server.

Such a signature server LSI can thus comprise one or more memories of data MD or of programs MP or cooperate with some of them remote from said server, to host one or more signatures SG but also to store program instructions P200 of which the 'interpretation or execution by the server processing unit automatically adapts the operation and behavior of said LSI server. The program instructions are generally written in a program memory MP, the access for updating of which is restricted and limited to an administrator of said server. The signatures and other data inherent in the operation of said LSI server are recorded and updated in one or more data memories MD. Thus, to adapt the operation of an LSI server so that the latter can use an email signature SG produced in accordance with method 100, previously described in connection with FIGS. 2, 2A and 2B, a program memory MP, cooperating with the processing unit of the LSI server, comprises instructions of a program P200 whose interpretation or execution by said processing unit of said LSI server causes the implementation of a method 200 of delivering a fragment d 'an image of such a SG signature.

As indicated previously, in connection with FIG. 1 in particular, a signature SG of an email prepared in accordance with the invention consists mainly of the designation of an image I of which at least one zone ZIn is clickable. Associated with said image I, an SCP script, that is to say a series of instructions (for example in HTML language) interpretable by an email client MUA, describes a tabular representation of said image I in the form of 'a set of containers or cells respectively associated with FI image fragments whose geometric data are also explained in said SCP script. Said SCP script also includes possible hyperlinks HREF1, HREF2, associated with certain image fragments in order to make the image I clickable. An SG signature can also include other elements traditionally integrated into email signatures such as one or more text blocks or one or more other non-clickable images or associated globally with a single hyperlink. Once designed, for example according to the method 100 described in connection with FIG. 2, such a signature SG (that is to say at least, an image I designated and associated with an SCP script describing said image I in a form fragment container table) can be loaded into a data memory MD of the LSI server, for example by a request for registration of an RSS signature.

The method 200, a preferred embodiment of which is now described in conjunction with FIG. 3, comprises a first step 201, implemented during the reception, by the communication means of said server, of a request for content emanating from of a messaging client MUA installed on a workstation of a user publisher or recipient of an email M comprising a signature SG of which a representation SGR is recorded in data memory MD of the server LSI. Such a step 201 consists in identifying the content request received as an RF fragment request and then extracting from the latter data transmitted by said fragment request. Such an RF request, as indicated above, can essentially consist of a command in the form of an argument URL of an <img> tag in the form of a character string (or query string according to English terminology) . An example of a method for identifying an RF fragment request implemented by step 201 may advantageously consist in recognizing in said character string a predetermined keyword, for example the keyword "fragment" as described in connection with the SCP scripts of Figures 2A and 2B.

The method 200 therefore comprises a step 202 for decoding said extracted data and recognizing, in said character string, the name, or more generally a container identifier (for example a file name) associated with the image I designated in said character string, as well as geometric data of a required fragment FI of said image I. Such an image I, as well as a fragment thereof FI, are translated into the data memory of the signature server LSI by digital representations , respectively RI and RFI in a matrix form of pixels whose integer and respective values describe colors and / or light intensities, which we will call in an undifferentiated manner, in this document for the sake of simplification, "light intensities".

Said geometrical data of a fragment FI delimit in a way a view or a subset of the image I, more precisely, said geometrical data will be used to develop a new digital representation RFI associated with a fragment of the image from the RI representation of the global image I, as we will study later. Said geometric data can advantageously be extracted from different fields, contained in said character string and discriminable by the presence of a determined separator (such as the character for example), and constitute a quadruplet of integers U, D, L and R , for which :

- U: designates a first vertical row rvl of the pixel describing the top left corner of the fragment FI with respect to a reference corner of the image I, advantageously the top left corner of the latter;

- D: designates a second vertical row rv2 of the pixel describing the bottom left or right corner of the fragment FI with respect to said reference corner of image I;

- L: designates a first horizontal row rhl of the pixel describing the top (or bottom) corner to the left of the fragment FI relative to said reference corner of image I;

- R: designates a second horizontal row rh2 of the pixel describing the top (or bottom) right corner of the fragment FI with respect to said reference corner of the image I.

According to the example of a character string associated with an <img> tag of an SCP script described in connection with FIGS. 2A and 2B, the “upper” field of said character string gives the value of U, the field “Lower” gives the value of D, the “right” field gives the value of R and the “left” field gives the value of L. Any other nature or content of geometric data could be in place or in addition to be exploited . For example, such geometric data could describe a set of characteristic points of a polyline.

The method 200 includes a step 203 for reading, from the data memory MD, the digital representation RI of the image I, the container name of which has also been decoded in step 202. As mentioned previously, this advantageously consists of a table of pixels whose integer and respective values reflect the light intensities of said pixels.

The method 200 then consists, in a step 204, of developing a logical view of said representation RI of image I, in order to produce a new digital representation RFI of a section or portion, advantageously but not limitatively rectangular, of the structure of image I. For this, like a layer, step 204 consists in keeping in the RFI representation only the only pixels surrounded or captured, for example, by a polyline determined by the geometric data previously determined in step 202 In other words, only the pixels present in the geometric form constituted by said polyline would be kept in the RFI representation. As a variant, and according to the examples studied in conjunction with FIGS. 2A and 2B, such a step 204 can advantageously create the new digital representation RFI, from a quadruplet of integers R, L, U, D, drawn from the data geometric extracts, in a matrix form of pixels whose integer and respective values are identical to those of the only pixels of the digital representation RI of the entire image I of which:

- The horizontal rows are included between the first and second horizontal rows L and R, described above;

- The vertical rows are included between the first and second vertical rows U and D, also described above.

Such an RFI representation defines an IF fragment of the image I. Such an RFI representation can be stored by the LSI server in a data memory MD so as not to have to possibly have to produce such an IF image fragment again during a next request for a similar RF fragment. This storage is optional, because the nominal and preferred behavior according to the invention of the LSI server during the implementation of the method 200, consists in developing a new fragment FI upon receipt of any request in fragment RF.

Steps 205 and 206, aimed respectively at encoding the fragment FI produced in the form of a message SF and in triggering the emission of said message SF intended for the requesting messaging client MUA, are identical to those implemented by a server signatures or traditional content.

Thanks to the adaptation of an LSI signature server according to the invention, a user, such as the user U1, U2 or U3 described in connection with FIG. 1, can respectively edit and receive an email M whose body MC includes a signature SG produced according to the invention in complete transparency.

In fact, when a messaging client MUA interprets the content, generally expressed in HTML language, of the body MC of an email M, including the SCP script associated with such a signature SG, image I, only written in a memory MD data from the LSI signature server, is dynamically recomposed, like a puzzle, during the display of the email M triggered by the interpretation of the SCP script by the client MUA. Indeed, each cell of the table thus specified in said SCP script includes an <img> tag associated with an argument of type URL as described above, which automatically triggers the emission of a request in RF fragment by the messaging client MUA to the LSI signature server. This develops, on the fly, said fragment FI according to the geometric data contained in said SCP script and returns to said client MUA the fragment FI produced. Image I is thus reconstructed by a succession of requests for RF fragments provided by said SCP script. If a fragment is associated with a hyperlink, for example by the presence of an <a> tag containing said hyperlink, the image fragment FI becomes clickable. A user of the MUA messaging client concerned can then click on said image fragment and reach content whose address is determined by said hyperlink. An SG signature developed according to the invention thus becomes multi-clickable, offering great flexibility of constitution for its designer, while preserving perfect operability.

Claims (13)

1. Method (200) for delivering a fragment (FI) of an image (I) designated in a signature (SG) of an email (M), said method being implemented by a processing unit of a signature server (LSI) further comprising communication means for receiving a content request sent by a third-party electronic device (Dl, D2, D3) and for sending, in response to such a content request, content under the form of a content message, said signature server (LSI) cooperating with a data memory (MD) comprising, associated with said (200: sgr: said method the digital container (RI of a signature container (SGR) (SG), being characterized in that it includes a representation of the image (I) in a matrix form of pixels whose respective integer values describe light intensities and, in that the method (200) comprises: a step (201) for identifying a content request, received by the means of communication of the signature server (LSI), as a fragment request (RF) and for extracting therefrom data conveyed by said fragment request (RF) ); a step (202) for decoding said data extracted from the fragment request and determining: i. the value of the container identifier (RSG) of the digital representation (RI) of the image (I); ii. geometric data determining a fragment (FI) of said image (I) by delimiting a subset of said representation (RI) of the image (I); - a step (203) for reading, in data memory (MD), the digital representation (RI) of the image (I) from which the container identifier value has been extracted; a step (204) for producing a new digital representation (RFI), from the digital representation (RI) of the image (I) and of the geometric data previously extracted, describing a fragment (FI) of the image ( I); - a step (205) for encoding said new digital representation (RFI) describing a fragment (FI) of the image (I) in the form of a content message (SF); - A step (206) to trigger the transmission of said content message (SF) to the third-party electronic device (Dl, D2, D3) by the communication means of the signature server (LSI). 2. Method (200) according to the preceding claim, for which data conveyed by a content request consist of a character string and the step (201) for identifying such a request as a fragment request (RF) consists in recognize in said character string the presence of a predetermined keyword. 3. Method (200) according to claim 1 or 2, for which: - the geometric data extracted from a fragment request (RF) consist of a set of integers respectively designating characteristic points of a polyline; - the step to produce the new digital representation (RFI) describing the required image fragment (FI) consists in creating a digital representation in a matrix form of pixels whose whole and respective values are identical to those of the only pixels of the digital representation (RI) of the image (I) captured by said polyline. 4. Method (200) according to claim 1 or 2, for which for which: - the geometric data consist of a quadruplet of integers describing: - first and second vertical rows in number of pixels, from a reference pixel within the digital representation (RI) of the image (I), the value of the second vertical row being greater than that of the first; - first and second horizontal rows in number of pixels, from said reference pixel within said digital representation (RI) of the image (I), the value of the second horizontal row being greater than that of the first; - the step to produce the new digital representation (RFI) describing the required image fragment (FI) consists in creating a digital representation in a matrix form of pixels whose whole and respective values are identical to those of the only pixels of the digital representation (RI) of the image (I) of which: - The horizontal rows are between said first and second horizontal rows; - The vertical rows are between said first and second vertical rows. 5. Computer program product (P200) comprising a plurality of program instructions which, when previously loaded into the program memory (MP) of a signature server (LSI), said server (LSI) comprising in addition, a processing unit, communication means making it possible to interact with a third-party electronic device, a data memory (MD), then executed or interpreted by said processing unit of said signature server (LSI), causes the setting in work of a method (200) of delivering a fragment (FI) of an image (I) designated in a signature (SG) of an email (M) according to any one of claims 1 to 4 . 6. Signature server (LSI) comprising a processing unit, communication means making it possible to interact with a third-party electronic device, a data memory (MD) and a program memory (MP), said server being characterized in that said program memory (MP) stores the instructions of a computer program product (P200) according to the preceding claim. 7. Method (100) for developing a signature (SG) of an email (M), said signature (SG) designating an image (I), said method (100) being implemented by a processing unit of an electronic device (D4) further comprising a data memory recording a digital representation (RI) of the image (I) in a matrix form of pixels whose respective integer values describe light intensities, an input interface , said method comprising a processing (110) for developing a representation describing said signature (SG), a step (130) for encoding said structure in the form of a message (RSS) requesting the registration of said signature with a remote signature server (LSI), said method (100) being characterized in that it comprises: a step (102) for collecting from the input interface N sets of input data, N being a non-zero integer, for which a set of input data comprises: i. geometric data of a polyline delimiting a clickable area (ZI1, ZI2) and, ii. a character string (HREF1, HREF2) translating a hyperlink associated with said zone (ZI1, ZI2) of the image (I); a step (103) for determining a fragmentation grid from said geometric data of said N sets of input data; and, in that the processing (110) for developing a representation describing said signature (SG) consists in developing a set (SCP) of program instructions, said program instructions being chosen for: - be automatically interpreted by an electronic messaging client (MUA), implemented by a third-party electronic device (Dl, D2, D3), triggering a graphic rendering of an email (M) including the signature (SG) and, - jointly translate an association of adjacent fragments containers (FI), associated respectively with fragment requests (RF), said requests being interpretable by a signature server (LSI) in accordance with claim 6 and each conveying data among which: - the value of a container identifier (RSG) of the digital representation (RI) of the image (I); - geometric data determining a fragment (FI) of said image (I) by delimiting a subset of said representation (RI) of the image (I), said geometric data being determined from the fragmentation grid. 8. Method (100) according to the preceding claim, for which: the geometric data taken from the input data describe a rectangular polyline; step (103) for determining a fragmentation grid from said geometric data from said N sets of input data consists in determining horizontal tabulations (ΤΗ0, ..., TH5) [2N + 1] vertical tabulations (TV0 ,. .., TV5 look at a reference pixel representation (RI) of the image (I); the processing (110) for developing a representation describing said signature (SG) in the form of a program instruction producing one or more programs for: [2N + 1]) and to the set (SCP) consists of instructions of i. describe a table of [2N + 1] ² containers of image fragments (FI), divided into [2N + 1] rows and [2N + 1] columns; ii. the geometric data conveyed by each fragment request (RF) delimiting the image fragment (FI) being determined according to the horizontal and vertical tabulations previously determined respectively. 9. Method (100) according to the preceding claim, for which the set (SCP) of program instructions produced to describe the signature (SG) conforms to the programming language "HyperText Markup Language" according to an English terminology. 10. Computer program product (P100) comprising a plurality of program instructions which, when they are: - previously loaded into the program memory of an electronic device (D4), said electronic device (D4) further comprising a processing unit, communication means making it possible to interact with a signature server (LSI), a memory data and an input interface, - then executed or interpreted by said processing unit of said electronic device (D4), causes the implementation of a process (100) for developing a signature (SG) of an email (M) according to one any of claims 7 to 9. 11. Electronic device (D4) comprising a processing unit, communication means making it possible to interact with a remote signature server (LSI), a data memory, an input interface and a program memory, said electronic device (D4) being characterized in that said program memory records the instructions of a computer program product (P100) according to the preceding claim. 12. Mail management system (M) comprising a signature server (LSI) according to claim 6 cooperating with an electronic messaging client (MUA) of an electronic device (Dl, D2, D3) by means of one or more several requests in fragment (RF) of an image (I) designated in a signature (SG) of an email (M) displayed by said email client (MUA). 13. System according to the preceding claim, comprising a second electronic device according to claim 11 cooperating with said 5 signature server by means of a message (RSS) requesting the registration of said signature (SG) with the signature server (LSI). 2/4 3/4 <cellspacing table = 0 cellpadding = 0 style-'border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse;> <tr> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 33 & left = 0> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 229 & left = 33> </ td <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 500 & left = 229> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href=www.page.html </a> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 42 & lower = 114 & right = 33 & left = 0> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 42 & lower = 114 & right = 229 & left = 33> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 42 & lower = 114 & right = 500 & left = 229> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 114 & lower = 300 & right = 33 & left = 0> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 114 & lower = 300 & right = 229 & left = 33> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 114 & lower = 300 & right = 500 & left = 229> </td> </tr> </table> 4/4 "cellspacing table = 0 cellpadding = 0 style-'border-spacing: 0; border-collapse: collapse;> <tr> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 33 & left = 0> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 229 & left = 33> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 271 & left = 229> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 365 & left = 271> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 0 & lower = 42 & right = 500 & left = 365> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 42 & lower = 75 & right = 33 & left = 0> </td> <td> <a href=pagel.com> </a> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 42 & lower = 75 & right = 229 & left = 33> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 42 & lower = 75 & right = 271 & left = 229> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 42 & lower = 75 & right = 365 & left = 271> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 42 & lower = 75 & right = 500 & left = 365> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 75 & lower = 114 & right = 33 & left = 0> </td> <td> <a href=pagel.com> </a> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 75 & lower = 114 & right = 229 & left = 33> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 75 & lower = 114 & right = 271 & left = 229> </td> <td> <a href=page2.com> </a> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 75 & lower = 114 & right = 365 & left = 271> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 75 & lower = 114 & right = 500 & left = 365> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 114 & lower = 244 & right = 33 & left = 0> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 114 & lower = 244 & right = 229 & left = 33> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 114 & lower = 244 & right = 271 & left = 229> </td> <td> <a href=page2.com> </a> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 114 & lower = 244 & right = 365 & left = 271> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 114 & lower = 244 & right = 500 & left = 365> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 244 & lower = 300 & right = 33 & left = 0> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 244 & lower = 300 & right = 229 & left = 33> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 244 & lower = 300 & right = 271 & left = 229> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 244 & lower = 300 & right = 365 & left = 271> </td> <td> <img src = / fragment / img.jpg? upper = 244 & lower = 300 & right = 500 & left = 365> </td> </tr> </table>