I've just updated to PR.1.2 and notice the same gray characters on replies. Whereas this is something that I can understand as I'm used to the Outlook default blue when replying, what bugs me is that it doesn't keep the formatting of my customized signatures from the email accounts. It seems to transform lines into spaces and I end up having a string of words instead of paragraph like standard signatures... Delete, saved again... no changes... any ideas on how to fix this?

As for the gray, just select the text and make it whatever color you want form the bottom right color text editor button. I've sent an email after changing the color and it kept my previous settings - now it's all black, apart from the signature of course...