This option is commonly used in contracts or policy documents where the author or publisher wants to ensure nothing can be added. This completely locks the document down so that no changes can be made, including form fill-in and additional digital signatures. This option is commonly used when multiple signatures are needed within a single document or if you are sending a form out to collect data. This allows the same changes as the first option, but without annotations. It also allows more digital signatures to be added. This permits the addition of annotations, which are useful when collaborating on document creation and the addition of form fill-ins, which allows document recipients to fill in any pre-set form fields. Annotations, form fill-in, and digital signatures You have one of three options for choosing which actions are permitted after certifying: You can see the name of the signer, their company, and the Certificate Authority (CA) that issued the certificate.Īs mentioned above, certifying a document gives you more control over which types of content can be added post-signature. Reader doesn’t support this ability.Ĭertified documents display a blue ribbon across the top of the document, which contains the signer’s name, their company and the certificate issuer – which is a clear, visual indicator of document authenticity and authorship.Įxample certified document in Adobe Acrobat. Note: As of now, you can only certify using Adobe Acrobat. This means certifying is usually done by the author or creator of the document, before it’s published or sent for additional signatures or form fill-ins. Unlike the digital or approval signatures we just discussed, you can only certify a document once and you cannot certify if the document already has a digital signature. Method Two: Certify the DocumentĬertifying a document is sometimes referred to as sealing the document. Instead, you should consider certifying the document, which gives you more granular control over which types of additions can be made post-signing. If you want to allow any of these types of changes, this option is not for you. The document would be on total lock-down. In this case, locking the document means no additional signatures, annotations, or form fill-ins would be allowed. As we just explained, the majority of the document contents are “locked” once you apply your signature. So, the phrase “locking” the document here is maybe a little misleading. We have a post that explains how this works, if you are interested. If there’s a mismatch, an error message is shown. Now, part of the appeal and much of the value of digital signatures comes from the content check that goes on behind the scenes when a signature is validated – basically, the contents of the document from when the signature was applied are compared to the contents at the time it’s validated (i.e. You have the option of locking the document after the signature is applied. They do exactly what the name implies, proving that you and any other signers, have approved the content of the document. In this context, digital signatures are sometimes called approval signatures and expedite an organization’s approval procedure by capturing the electronic approvals made by individuals or departments and embedding them within the actual PDF.
Signature is clickable to view more details about the signer.
You can see the name of the signer, an image of the signer’s physical signature and a timestamp. In the past, you could only digitally sign PDFs in Adobe Acrobat, but recently this feature was added to Adobe Reader as well.Įxample approval signature in Adobe Acrobat. Method One: Digitally Sign the Document (aka Add an Approval Signature)Īdding a digital signature is probably what you think of when you think of an electronic signature – basically, the virtual equivalent of physically signing the document in paper form.
Luckily, the differences and use cases are very clear.Ĭertificate-based signing options in Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.