Electronic signatures offer a smarter way of working – one that is faster and doesn’t waste paper. It’s especially convenient for remote workers, who may not have easy access to a printer or scanner.

There are two ways to add an electronic signature to your PDFs inside pdfDocs – uploading your signature as a file and stamping it on the page, or creating and inserting a digital signature certificate.

Sign electronically using a photo of your signature

You can create a custom stamp in pdfDocs with an image of your physical signature. Then, you can apply it to one PDF, a page range, or a whole document set.

How to create a custom electronic signature stamp:

1. Take a photo of your signature and upload it to your computer or network

2. Press ‘Create a Custom Stamp’ in pdfDocs and upload your signature file

To apply the stamp, simply press the ‘Stamp’ icon and choose it from the dropdown menu. Watch this video to see the process explained step-by-step.

It’s important to remember to Flatten your PDF after you’ve applied your electronic signature stamp. The Flatten tool locks the signature to the page and protects it from being removed or edited by someone that isn’t you.

You can create multiple electronic signature stamps for various uses. And, once applied, it’s easy to resize or reposition the signature stamp on the page.

Add and sign a Digital Signature field

Some documents or electronic signature processes will require the use of a Self-Signed Certificate, generally used for encrypting your file system in Windows. These can be created in the Windows Control Panel on your user account, added to pdfDocs from a central store, or uploaded as a file.

How to add and sign with an electronic signature:

1. Select the Digital Signatures icon within the Protect ribbon and choose ‘Add and Sign Digital Signature.’
2. Draw a placeholder box on the page where you want to sign.

3. In the Action pane that appears, choose ‘Select Signature from Certificate Store.’ It will show all previously-saved signatures, with the newest first.
4. Select the certificate you want to use and press OK.
5. Press ‘Sign’ – the PDF will re-open showing the signed Digital Signature.

In pdfDocs, you can customize what information displays with your Digital Signature, such as your name and company logo, or the date and time you applied it.

Add an electronic signature to a collection of documents

When you are working on a collection of documents in pdfDocs Organizer Mode, you can only apply and sign a Digital Signature when you export your file. For example, you may want to do this when you ‘sign-off’ on a sub-set of documents in the Project.

To sign a collection of documents in pdfDocs;

1. Choose how you want to export the whole Project or a collated section of it

a. Save it to your computer
b. Save it into your document management system
c. Send it as an email attachment
d. Save it to the Clipboard
e. Send it to another Project

2. The Signature window displays with the Project document open on the first placeholder for a Signature in the document, and Action options.

3. From the Action pane > click Select Signature from Certificate Store

a. Select the certificate > click OK.
You return to the Signature window, where this message displays beneath the Ribbons toolbar when there are any Digital Signatures to sign:
This document contains form fields. Would you like to highlight them?
b. Use the left Signatures pane > select each unsigned signature.
c. Click any unsigned Digital Signature in the PDF.
d. Click Sign.

If you need to request electronic signatures from clients or third parties, learn more about using the e-Sign feature available in cleanDocs. RMail® E-Sign provides a simple option to send any document for sign-off without the need to set up or prepare document fields. This saves time and makes e-sign an “attach-to-email-and-send” process.

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