Sign & Certify - Digital Signature
Digital Signature
A digital signature acts as a traditional handwritten signature that can be used to authenticate the identity of a user as well as the document content. It stores information about the signer along with the date, time, and state of the document when it was signed.
Place a signature
Before you sign a document, you need to draw a signature field where the signature is placed, get a digital ID, and create the signature.
1. Choose Protect > Sign & Certify > Place Signature.
2. Press and hold the mouse button down, and then drag the cursor to draw a signature.
3. In the Sign Document dialog box, choose a digital ID from a drop-down menu. If you can’t find the specified digital ID, you will need to get a certificate from the third-party provider or create a customized digital ID.
4. (Optional)To create a customized digital ID, choose New ID from drop-down menu. In the Add Digital ID dialog box, choose A new digital ID I want to create now, and click Next. In the next step, select the location to store the digital ID file. Click Next to type your identity information such as name, organization unit, e-mail address, etc. to be used when generating the self-signed certificate. In Use Digital ID for, choose one option as needed. Click Next to specify the storage location and password for your new digital ID file. Confirm your password and click Finish. The New ID option will not be available if the IT manager has configured and restricted digital IDs to sign PDF files across the company.
5. For Appearance Type, choose a style from the drop-down list, or click the Create button to create a new style for your signature appearance. The created styles will be added to the drop-down list for Appearance Type. Please refer to Create signature appearance. You can preview your signature in Signature Preview box.
6. Under Text For Signing, input text in the field and select an option from the drop-down list to specify your location and reason to sign the document. Please note that Location and Reason fields are available only when the signature is defined to include the corresponding option in its appearance type. For the Reason field, Foxit PDF Reader will save your custom reasons for you to choose from the drop-down list easily in future uses.
7. Do any of the following to sign PDF files:
Ø To sign the currently opened PDF file, click Sign, and then specify the location and file name to save the signed document.
Ø To sign multiple PDF files, click Apply to Multiple Files. In the pop-up Sign Multiple Documents dialog box, do the following:
² Click Add files, and choose Add Files, Add Folder, or Add Open Files to add files, folders or opened files that you want to sign with the same digital signature.
² By default, the document will be signed in a sequence as they are ordered in the Sign Multiple Documents dialog box. You can adjust the order of files by its name, modified time, or size by clicking the corresponding column name. Alternatively, drag and drop the file in the list to adjust its order. Select a file and click the Remove button to delete it, if necessary.
² Click Output Options to specify the output folder and file name for the signed PDF document.
² Click Sign Immediately. And then Foxit PDF Reader will sign your PDF documents with the same digital signature at the same location as your current document, and saved the signed documents in the folder you specified.
Note: When you choose a password protected digital ID to sign PDF files, you will be required to input the password when applying the signature. By default, an opened document will be signed immediately after you place the signature and then you will not be able to move or resize it. To change the setting, please uncheck the Sign the document immediately after the signature is placed option in File > Preferences > Signature.
You can set the appearance of your digital signature by selecting different options in Configure Signature Style dialog box. For example, a signature can include an image of your handwritten signature, a company logo, or a photo, date, reasons for signing, and so on.
Different appearances of signatures
1. Choose Protect > Sign & Certify > Place Signature.
2. Press and hold the mouse button down, and drag to draw a signature filed for your signature.
3. In Sign Document dialog box, click the Create button to create a new style for your signature appearance.
4. In the upper part of the Configure Signature Style dialog box, you can configure the graphic for your signature. You can choose to use no graphic, your handwritten signature, your name, or an image from a file.
Ø Name: This tab is displayed by default. If you choose this option, the certificate name that is defined when you create the self-signed digital ID will be shown in the digital signature.
Ø Draw: This tab allows you to draw your handwritten signature. When you switch to the Draw tab from any other tabs, the Draw Signature window will pop up automatically. Draw your signature on the pop-up window, and click OK to save your handwritten signature or click Clear to discard it. While in the Draw tab, you can also click Draw Signature to redisplay the Draw Signature window and draw a new signature.
Ø Image: Import a file from your local disk as an image. Click Browse to select the file. After importing the image, you can click Opacity to change the opacity. If you need to delete the imported image, click Clear.
Ø None: Do not use any image, and only display the information specified in the Configure Text and Configure Logo groups.
5. Check the options that you want to appear in the digital signature in the Configure Text group. A signature appearance can include lots of information showing the user’s attributes, including name, reason, location, etc.
6. (Optional) In the Text Property group, specify the text direction, font, and size for the text information shown in the digital signature.
Note: Text Direction options apply to both your common name and configured text (i.e. the information specified in the Configure Text group). You can use different fonts and sizes for your common name and configured text by selecting the desired options in the Common Name and Configure Text group in the Font/Size dialog box.
7. By default, Foxit PDF Editor logo will be shown on your digital signature. If you want to change that logo, click Browse in the Configure Logo group to select a desired one.
8. In the Title box, input a title for the signature appearance. When you sign a PDF file, you can find the signature by the title in the Appearance Type drop-down list. If you do not specify the title, Foxit PDF Reader will use “Created <date and time the signature was created>” as the title instead.
9. Click OK to close the Configure Signature Style dialog box.
10. Follow the steps in “Place a signature” to sign PDF files
Note: To manage the created styles, go to File > Preferences > Signature.
Sign a PDF
A PDF is signed to indicate your approval. The signature isn’t resized and moved when you sign the document. Multiple people can sign a PDF more than once. When you sign a document, your digital signature appears in the signature field. The appearance of the signature depends on your preferences.
By default, the document is signed immediately after you place the signature. After placing the signature, you will be prompted to save the signed document. Specify the file name and location in the pop-up Save As dialog box to save the document.
If you want to change the default setting to sign documents later, please uncheck the Sign the document immediately after signature is placed option in File > Preferences > Signature. After placing the signatures, follow one of the steps below to sign the document, and save it as prompted.
Choose Protect > Sign & Certify > Sign Document.
Select Hand command and right-click the signature, choose Sign Document.
Select Hand command, and click the signature.
Tip: If you sign a PDF file that is opened and checked out from SharePoint repository, you can skip the Save As steps as Foxit PDF Reader will automatically save it back to SharePoint.