Digitally Signing a Document
How a PDF is digitally signed depends on how it was created. In most cases, a signature field will have already been added to the document in preparation for your signature. Such documents might also be certified. In some cases, however, you might need to add your own signature field before signing. Fortunately, Revu makes it simple to do this, too.
If you do not have a Digital ID yet, you will need to create one first. See Managing Self-Signed Digital IDs.
Documents you have been given to sign might or might not be certified. Some certified documents do not allow any changes to be made to them after certification.
Be aware that if a digitally signed PDF is combined with another PDF, any signatures that have been placed will be automatically cleared and the resulting, combined document will need to be re-signed. To avoid this, either combine PDFs before signing or use Sets to view separate, signed PDFs as a single collection. Another option after signing a document that preserves the signature is to create a PDF package.
Documents that have been digitally signed are automatically locked to editing and their security status cannot be changed unless the signatures are cleared. This means that operations that would change the document (for example, adding or deleting pages, flattening markups, running OCR, adding new form fields, and so on) are not permitted; these options are not available/dimmed for these documents.
Digitally Signing a PDF That Already Has a Signature Field
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Click in the desired signature field. The Sign dialog box appears.
- Choose a Digital ID.
- For PKCS #12 IDs, enter the Password and click Log in.
- Windows Certificate Store IDs do not require a separate password as they are protected by the user's Windows login.
- Complete any of the desired Options fields.
- Select an Appearance for your signature.
- Click OK. A Save As dialog box appears. Signed documents must be saved at the time of signature placement.
- Enter a file name and select the location for the signed file, then click Save to save the signed PDF.
Digitally Signing a PDF That Does Not Have a Signature Field
- Go to Tools > Signature >
Sign Document. -
Click and drag a rectangle to define the region where the signature will appear. The Sign dialog box appears.
- Choose the Digital ID to sign with.
- For PKCS #12 IDs, enter the Password and click Log in.
- Windows Certificate Store IDs do not require a separate password as they are protected by the user's Windows login.
- Under Signature Type, select Digital Signature.
- Complete any of the desired Options fields.
- Select an Appearance for the signature.
- Click OK. A Save As dialog box appears. Signed documents must be saved at the time of signature placement.
- Enter a file name and select the location for the signed file, then click Save to save the signed PDF.
Clearing Your Digital Signature
In the event that you wish to clear your digital signature, either permanently or in order to make any needed changes and reapply it, you can do so easily. You can only clear your own digital signature.
To clear your digital signature, simply right-click the signature and select Clear Signature.
