In many inboxes, some senders appear with their company logo while others get a grey circle with an initial. That difference comes from BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification). BIMI tells mailbox providers where your domain's logo lives, and providers display it only when the message is authenticated. So BIMI is not mere decoration: it works only for domains with SPF, DKIM and DMARC in order, and it gives recipients a visible sign that the message really comes from you.
Prerequisites
BIMI sits on top of your existing authentication. The essential requirement is an enforced DMARC policy: with p=none, supporting providers will not show the logo. You need p=quarantine or p=reject applied to all mail, so pct must not be below 100, and messages must pass SPF or DKIM with alignment. Reputation matters too: a domain known for spam may not get its logo shown even with a valid record.
Preparing the logo as SVG Tiny PS
BIMI does not accept PNG or arbitrary SVG. The logo must follow the SVG Tiny Portable/Secure profile, which forbids scripts, external references, animation and embedded external images, and requires a title element. Use a square design, since clients crop it into a circle or square.
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.2" baseProfile="tiny-ps"
viewBox="0 0 512 512">
<title>Example Maktab</title>
<!-- logo shapes -->
</svg>Files exported from design tools usually need cleaning or conversion. Validate the result with the BIMI working group's online checker and host it over HTTPS, for example at https://example.uz/bimi/logo.svg.
VMC and CMC certificates
Large providers such as Gmail and Apple Mail show logos only with a mark certificate. A VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) proves the logo is a registered trademark and is issued by recognised certificate authorities; the trademark must be registered with an office the authority accepts, so confirm the list first. A CMC (Common Mark Certificate) does not require a trademark but asks for proof that the logo has been used on your domain for some time. Validation can take weeks, certificates are paid and renewed yearly; get current terms from the issuer. Some providers may honour BIMI without a certificate, but that depends on their policy and your reputation.
Publishing the record
default._bimi.example.uz. IN TXT "v=BIMI1; l=https://example.uz/bimi/logo.svg; a=https://example.uz/bimi/vmc.pem"
dig +short TXT default._bimi.example.uz
dig +short TXT _dmarc.example.uz
curl -sI https://example.uz/bimi/logo.svg | head -n 5The l= tag points to the logo and a= to the PEM certificate; leave a= empty if you have none yet. Make sure the logo URL returns 200 directly, without redirects.
Example: a private school in Tashkent
A private school emails parents grades, payment reminders and event notices every week. After parents receive a fake message in the school's name with a different card number for payment, the school enables DMARC in monitoring mode, fixes its legitimate sources and reaches p=reject in two months. It then converts its logo to SVG Tiny PS, applies for a certificate and publishes the BIMI record. Parents now see the familiar logo next to school emails in Gmail, while forgeries are blocked by DMARC. DMARC did the protecting; BIMI made trustworthy mail easy to recognise.
If the logo does not appear
Providers cache data, so allow a few days. Then check that DMARC is really quarantine or reject with pct at 100, that headers show dmarc=pass, that the SVG passes validation and that the certificate logo matches the hosted file. The BIMI TXT record can be added in the sayt.uz cabinet's DNS section, with the logo and certificate files placed in your site folder on hosting.