composing email initial graphics

Graphic?  Not sure what you are talking about.  Your signature maybe?  If it is your signature then change it or disable it.  Click the settings gear -> more settings -> mailboxes -> choose the account and in the pane on the right edit the signature or disable it by clicking the slider to its right.  Click save button at bottom to update the settings.

If not the signature maybe post a screen shot of what you are talking about (censor personal info).

How do I copy into this screen? I took a screenshot sample, said it was in the clipboard, but ctrl V or the icon here doesn't put it in this rich text field, at least I don't see it.

sample

sometimes a single initial, most are two

I had to make a screenshot a saved graphic and upload into this message screen.

Also on my incoming msg's

This is definitely system generated. This is off an incoming msg to me the first receipt, not a receive-reply-receive msg

Oh that thing.  It's not really there.  They are just trying to be "cute" showing useless crap during the compose.  Send an email to yourself and you will see the recipient never sees it.

Wrong. Well, not totally. I tested composing in my att.net acct, send to my gmail that auto forwards back to my att (for business reasons). I discovered that sending to myself, in "compose" my little graphic is the personal picture I use for Twitter that has no connection to my email, but it is on my hard drive. I looked at the gmail version of that message, no picture, just a little empty circle. The copy that auto forwarded back into ATT, had a picture. (Twitter is the only online communication I've inserted a picture image. ATT/Yahoo has no connection with Twitter, does it?  Isn't Twitter still independently owned?)

My daughter is on Microsoft Hotmail. We tested. Sent fresh message to her, an initial graphic created on my end, only an empty field on her end. She "replied" back to me, my copy again has my picture. She said if she had that picture in her Hotmail address book for me, or if she had it on her hard drive, it would appear for me in her message copy.

It does seem the generic initials graphics do not travel with the message to be seen visually by the recipient, but will reappear on any replies to me. (I haven't tested this on my smartphone. She's on one, I'm on a desktop).

I know businesses will have chosen a standardized graphic for their email's. But for an email system to populate that field for private parties sending to me, is among the dumbest, most inefficient designs I've heard in a long time. The "space" for a graphic is there on all incoming and outgoing messages. That means it accumulates whether populated or not.

But, I guess I have to ignore it.

Thanks for responding!

I can guarantee you there is no graphic in the email.  If you are seeing it displayed it's the webmail itself trying to be "cute" and adding it there based on your contacts list or just making it up on the fly when it displays the message.  There no reason other email displays can't be just as cute.

If you don't believe me I challenge you to find that graphic in the actual email, i.e., the raw text.  You have an option for that.  Click the three dots in the small toolbar at the bottom of the message and click "view raw message".  You certainly won't find anything in the From: header.  And there is no email protocol to prefix an otherwise fully text based format with a text based graphic in the From: header of the email that I am aware of.  Also if you are so worried about space for these things, when you view the raw text, just wait to you see all the stuff that accompanies an email that you don't normally see!

"Cute" is not what any email program should be. I realize you are an expert and I'm only a teacher (a mystery how I got labeled that), but we obviously disagree that whether actually using a lot of space as a graphic or superfluous code that creates images on my working screen whose only intent is to seemingly entertain the user, this is a stupid and wasteful design direction. If only as a voter of one, my opinion has been expressed on this forum. I do not have a vested interest in ATT or Yahoo. Life has enough challenges to which email is expected to help, not hinder.