How to get my signature to appear when I digitally sign in Adobe Reader XI

Question

HELP! Why have I searched the whole internet and can't get this?

I have signed a bit of paper. Scanned it and cropped it. In Adobe Reader XI, I have clicked Edit, Preferences. I clicked on Signatures in the Categories and then click More... in the Creation & Appearance section. I clicked New, changed the title to my name, click imported graphic and uploaded my signature. I ticked off all the Configure Text boxes as I don't want them to appear when I sign. I clicked OK and OK. This brings me back to the Digital Signatures screen.

I clicked More... under Identities & Trusted Certificates. From what I read on other websites, my signature I just created should appear as an ID. Nothing. So I clicked Add ID. I have tried both creating one from a file and creating a new one as per the wizard. At no stage does it allow me to import the signature I just created. I need some kind of step by step answer here guys. Please help!!! I am going crazy!

Ask me any questions, please.

Answer 1

You've created a graphical signature for use with a digital certificate. Some products call this an "Appearance" for a digital signing certificate.

But what you need is to obtain or create your own digital signing certificate. Then you can sign from Adobe Reader.

You can create a self-signed certificate, but such signatures are not particularly trust worthy by the relying parties (the recipients) since there is no way for them to assure themselves that you are who you say you are.

So you should have a certificate that is signed by either a Certificate Authority or by a trustworthy organization, eg your cert can be signed by your corporation's cert. The corporation's cert can be self-signed.

My company (DocuSign) and others make digital cert systems that can enable Adobe Reader to sign. Here is info on using the CoSign products to sign from BlueBeam Revu . Note the config guide . The process for signing from Adobe Reader is very similar.