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You are here: MacNN Forums > News > Mac News > Pointers: Sign your PDFs in Preview

Pointers: Sign your PDFs in Preview
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NewsPoster
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May 25, 2015, 08:30 AM
 
It is wrong, just wrong that someone can send you a PDF and expect you to print it out, sign it, take it to your local post office and physically send them the piece of paper back. It's wrong, and it's also easy for them: one button and their job is done. Shock them by sending that PDF right back with your signature on.

You had best check that this is okay: if you're dealing with the IRS, then walking to the post office with your head bowed low is fine, quite fine, we'll do that, don't punish us please.



Most of the time, though, sending back a PDF with your signature in it is no different to printing that thing out, finding your pen, scribbling, discovering the pen has run out of ink because seriously who uses pens any more, getting another one, signing and scanning the thing again.

It remains the fact, too, that as a Mac user you have a huge advantage, because handling PDF is just an ordinary and familiar part of OS X. Windows users have to schlep around buying extra tools, paying this, paying that, installing this, reinstalling that. We're not saying that if you suspect your sender is on a PC that you could knock their socks off by replying complete with signature in a picosecond, but we're thinking it.

This tip was tested on OS X 10.10 Yosemite, using the latest version of Apple's Preview application, but the features have been around since Lincoln was signing documents.

What you need

We're embarrassed to say it now, but you'll need pen and paper. Just this once. What you're going to do is show Preview your signature, and have it remember you for all time so if you didn't know any better, you'd think paper and pen were essential.

Officially, they're not. Officially, you can do this by signing on your trackpad, but don't. Maybe you're the one in a million who can write your regular signature on your MacBook's trackpad but, face it, no, you're not.

Write out your signature on paper just like you were sending us a check. Now in front of your Mac, open up Preview.

Longest chain of menus ever

Wait until you see this. In Preview, choose the Tools menu then Annotate, then Signature, then Manage Signatures. That row of menus snakes out across your screen, making you wish you got a 27in iMac.



When you select Manage Signatures, you'll get a dialog box that lists all the signatures you've already got. That's probably empty now, unless you've done this a lot for all your noms de plume, and in that case you're already familiar with how to do all this.

At the bottom of the empty panel or list of your nefarious aliases, there is a Create Signature. Now you'll get a dialog box that does that thing about signing your trackpad. You could have a go, we're not stopping you, but seriously, just click on the Camera button.

Should've combed your hair

It takes a beat, but the dialog changes to show the view from your Mac's FaceTime camera, most typically of you peering at the screen wondering when it's going to work.

There will also be a horizontal blue line part way up the image. Take the piece of paper you wrote your signature on, and hold it up to the camera. It will display in reverse, in a mirror image, but pay no attention to that. After another moment, you will see your signature copied, and flipped the right way around.



It will be as poorly written as your own signature, that's rather the point, but it may also be patchy if the ink wasn't very clear. So you may have to do this a few times, but when you're happy with what you see in black ink on the screen, click on Done.

You're done

That's it, you've got your signature into your iMac's Preview application. Now when someone sends you a PDF, open it in Preview and to sign it, choose Annotate from the Tools menu.

You'll then have to choose Signature, but now where you previously had the Manage Signatures option, you also get a very small image of your signature. Choose that like it's a regular menu item, and a copy of your signature is popped into your document.



Be warned: it'll probably be huge. It'll probably dwarf any "Sign Here" box on the PDF. However, when it's popped onto your PDF, it will have grab handles on the corners around the image of your signature. Drag any handle until the signature is the size you want. If you're used to holding down Shift while dragging to make an image scale properly, don't bother: Preview won't distort your signature.

Then click and hold in the middle of the signature and drag it around to where you want it. Now if you save that PDF, you are saving it with your signature in.

You know we have to say this

Don't do this with anyone else's signature, okay? If you somehow got the President of the United States' scribble and attempted to use it, we wouldn't even visit you in prison.

One thing, though. If you look at the screen images here, you'll see we've done this before, we've used signatures this way -- and while they're blurred out, there are two signatures there. Preview will not stop you entering any number of signatures you like, and on the iMac we tested this, we have one job where two people have agreed to include both of their signatures.

That's their choice, and their trusting of each other. This is therefore the weak spot of doing all this, of signing PDFs in Preview: it's hard to believe that we'll stay with this insecure system for long. Still, it is taking an enormous time for us to move from paper to digital, and while we're in progress, PDFs are important and this PDF signature feature is useful.

-- William Gallagher (@WGallagher)
( Last edited by NewsPoster; May 31, 2015 at 02:46 PM. )
     
Doodpants
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May 25, 2015, 09:51 AM
 
How do you create a signature on a Mac Mini, which has neither a track pad nor a camera?
     
macjockey
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May 25, 2015, 01:34 PM
 
it should allow you to import and use a scanned image. The image captured from the iSight camera isn't worth a crap.
     
Chris_Rogers
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May 26, 2015, 02:11 PM
 
Sign your signature with a Black Sharpie or other similar thick marker.
     
Thorzdad
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May 26, 2015, 05:47 PM
 
I just crack-open the PDF in Illustrator, drop-in a scan of my signature (set on Multiply to make the white go transparent) re-save as PDF and email it back.

Originally Posted by NewsPoster View Post
This tip was tested on OS X 10.10 Yosemite, using the latest version of Apple's Preview application, but the features have been around since Lincoln was signing documents.
It's not available in Preview 5.0.3 in Snow Leopard, which isn't quite as old as Mr. Lincoln.
     
ghporter
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May 26, 2015, 07:14 PM
 
I gotta admit, this method, even if it seems kind of convoluted, is much easier than scanning my signature, edit/cropping it so it'll work, getting it to overlay into an existing document, aligning and sizing it, then getting the darn thing to save properly - without making the final document balloon from hundreds of kB to gigabytes. Much easier.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
   
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