Classic Letterheads
A Classic Letterhead in Salesforce is a reusable branding wrapper that adds a consistent header and footer to HTML email templates built in Salesforce Classic.
Definition
A Classic Letterhead in Salesforce is a reusable branding wrapper that adds a consistent header and footer to HTML email templates built in Salesforce Classic. Each letterhead is a Setup record that defines a logo, header band, footer band, background colors, and divider lines. An HTML (using Classic Letterhead) email template links to one letterhead, and that header and footer render around the template body when the email is sent.
Classic Letterheads are a legacy feature. You cannot create them in Lightning Experience, and existing letterheads remain editable mainly for backward compatibility. The modern replacement is Enhanced Letterheads, which attach to Lightning email templates that use Handlebars Merge Language. Many orgs keep Classic Letterheads alive because Workflow and approval email alerts still point at Classic templates that reference them.
How Classic Letterheads brand your email
The wrapper model: header, body, footer
A Classic Letterhead splits a branded email into three zones. The header band sits at the top and usually holds a company logo plus a colored banner. The footer band sits at the bottom and carries legal text, contact details, social links, or opt-out wording. Between them is the body, where the linked email template writes its actual message. The letterhead owns the look of all three zones, while the template owns the words in the middle. This split is the whole point of the design. Branding lives once, inside the letterhead, and every HTML (using Classic Letterhead) template that selects it inherits the same frame. An admin can change the logo or footer disclosure in one place and have it apply across many templates. Without letterheads, each Classic HTML template would need the same header and footer HTML pasted in by hand, which drifts out of sync fast. The trade is rigidity. The zones, divider lines, and color slots are fixed by the letterhead editor, so you cannot freely rearrange the layout the way a modern builder allows.
Where letterheads live in Setup
Classic Letterheads are managed from Setup. Enter Classic Letterheads in the Quick Find box and select Classic Letterheads, then click New Letterhead to start one. Each letterhead is metadata, so it has a Letterhead Label used on Salesforce UI pages and a Letterhead Unique Name used by the Lightning Platform API and in metadata deployments. An Available For Use checkbox controls whether users can pick the letterhead in templates right away. After you save the shell, the detail page shows clickable regions you edit one at a time. You set the background color for the whole letterhead, then edit the header properties, top line, body colors, middle line, and footer properties for color, alignment, and height. You also select a logo image to place in the header. Because letterheads are org metadata, they move through change sets and the Metadata API like other config, which matters when you promote a branded template set from a sandbox to production. Treat the letterhead and its templates as a unit during deployment.
How templates consume a letterhead
A letterhead does nothing on its own. It only renders when an HTML (using Classic Letterhead) email template selects it. When you build that template type in Salesforce Classic, you choose a letterhead and an email layout, then write the body content that fills the space between the header and footer. At send time, Salesforce stitches the letterhead frame around the template body and produces the final HTML email. This dependency runs one direction. A single letterhead can back many templates, but each template points at exactly one letterhead. That is why deleting a letterhead is risky. Any template still referencing it loses its branding, and the break is quiet because no hard error blocks the send. The practical rule is to inventory which templates use a letterhead before you touch it. Note also that you cannot create these HTML using Classic Letterhead templates in Lightning Experience. Existing ones still work and can be sent from Lightning, but new authoring of this exact template type happens in Salesforce Classic only.
Why this counts as a legacy feature
Classic Letterheads date from a time before Salesforce had a first-party email branding system for Lightning. They solved a real problem then, giving admins one shared header and footer for branded HTML mail. The model has aged. The editor is a fixed set of color and alignment slots, image handling is fragile, and the output does not always render cleanly across email clients like Outlook. Salesforce now steers new branding work to Lightning Experience tooling. You cannot create Classic Letterheads in Lightning, and new orgs lean on the Lightning replacement instead. The feature is not dead, it is frozen. Existing letterheads keep working so that long-standing automations and template libraries do not break overnight. For any new project, building fresh Classic Letterheads is the wrong call. The right move is to use the modern path and reserve Classic Letterheads for maintaining what already exists. Think of them as a compatibility layer you keep running, not a foundation you build new branding on.
Enhanced Letterheads, the modern path
Enhanced Letterheads are the Lightning Experience successor. Instead of wrapping a Classic HTML template, an enhanced letterhead attaches to a Lightning email template that uses Handlebars Merge Language. You add content to the header, the footer, or both, and the letterhead supplies that framing around the Lightning template body. Enhanced letterheads are public by default, so any standard user with access to Lightning email templates can add one to a template from the template record home. The difference in feel is real. Classic Letterheads gave you a rigid grid of color and line settings. Enhanced Letterheads let you author header and footer content more freely and pair it with the richer Lightning email template editor. Merge fields use Handlebars Merge Language rather than the older Classic merge syntax. If your team is standardizing on Lightning email templates, enhanced letterheads are where new branding belongs. The migration story is to rebuild the look of each Classic Letterhead as an enhanced letterhead, point new Lightning templates at it, and retire the Classic pair once nothing references it.
Why orgs still keep them around
The main reason Classic Letterheads survive is automation that has not moved. Workflow email alerts and approval process email alerts send Classic email templates, and many of those templates use a Classic Letterhead for branding. Until those automation surfaces are rebuilt on Lightning equivalents, the Classic template and its letterhead stay in service. Ripping out the letterhead would strip branding from mail those processes still send every day. Large orgs usually run a mix. New customer-facing email gets authored as Lightning email templates with enhanced letterheads, while a tail of Classic templates and letterheads keeps older workflows and approvals looking right. The cleanup is best handled alongside a broader Workflow-to-Flow migration, because the letterhead dependency is downstream of the automation that calls the template. Migrate the alert and the template, validate the rendered email, then the letterhead can finally be retired. Doing it in that order avoids the silent branding breaks that come from deleting a letterhead while a live process still points at it.
Pitfalls when working with letterheads
A few problems recur. Logo images can be stored at an external URL, and if that source moves or is taken down, the header image breaks in every email built on that letterhead. Hosting the logo as a Salesforce document or static resource is steadier. Footer content is the next trap. It often carries regulatory disclosures, physical address, or unsubscribe language, so any edit may need legal or compliance review before it ships. Rendering is the third issue. A letterhead that looks perfect in the Salesforce preview can fall apart in Outlook or in mobile mail clients, because those clients interpret HTML and CSS differently. Always send a real test to several clients before trusting a branded layout. Finally, mind the dependency chain before deleting anything. A letterhead with no obvious template attached may still be referenced by a Classic template that an automation calls. Audit references first, because the failure mode is a quietly unbranded email rather than a loud error that alerts you something went wrong.
Set up a Classic Letterhead
You configure a Classic Letterhead in Salesforce Classic Setup, then link it from an HTML (using Classic Letterhead) email template. These steps apply to orgs that already have the feature, since you cannot create Classic Letterheads in Lightning Experience.
- Open the Classic Letterheads page
From Setup, enter Classic Letterheads in the Quick Find box, then select Classic Letterheads. Click New Letterhead. You need permission to manage email templates and letterheads to see this page.
- Name the letterhead and make it usable
Select Available For Use so users can pick it right away, enter a Letterhead Label for the Salesforce UI, and adjust the Letterhead Unique Name if needed for API and metadata references. Click Save.
- Style the header, body, and footer
On the detail page, click Edit Background Color, then edit the header properties, top line, body colors, middle line, and footer properties for color, alignment, and height. Use Select Logo to add your company image to the header.
- Attach the letterhead to a template
Create an HTML (using Classic Letterhead) email template in Salesforce Classic, choose this letterhead and a layout, then write the body content that renders between the header and footer.
Checkbox that lets users select the letterhead in templates immediately instead of keeping it hidden while you finish styling it.
The display name shown on Salesforce user interface pages when someone picks a letterhead for a template.
The API name used to reference the letterhead from the Lightning Platform API, change sets, and Metadata API deployments.
The company image placed in the header band; host it as a Salesforce document or static resource so the link does not break later.
- You cannot create Classic Letterheads or HTML using Classic Letterhead templates in Lightning Experience; existing ones still work and can be sent from Lightning.
- Deleting a letterhead silently strips branding from any template that still references it, so audit dependencies before removing one.
- A letterhead that previews cleanly in Salesforce can render badly in Outlook or mobile clients; send real test emails before trusting it.
- Footer text often holds legal disclosures or unsubscribe wording, so route changes through compliance review.
Prefer this walkthrough as its own page? How to Classic Letterheads in Salesforce, step by step
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Classic Letterheads.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Classic Letterheads.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What did a Classic Letterhead supply to an HTML Classic Email Template?
Q2. What is the Lightning-era replacement for the Letterhead branding model?
Q3. Why do Classic Letterheads still survive in many production orgs?
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