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Participating Frequently
October 5, 2021
Question

Combine digitally signed documents (don't care about preserving signature)

  • October 5, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 976 views

** Overview

I have a use case where I have several digitally signed invoices. Each invoice is a separate PDF file. When paying these invoices we put together a "payment pack", which is basically all of the invoices were paying combined into a single PDF file, accompanied by a cover sheet with a payment summary. That payment pack is then circulated to signatories to be signed via Adobe Sign, authorising the vendor payment.

 

** Problem

When I try to combine digitally signed PDFs in Acrobat, it removes all of the digital signatures from the invoices except for one. The problem this causes is that the person combining the PDFs together is left with a digital signature placeholder field that they don't know how to remove from the PDF.

 

Because I truly don't care about preserving the validity of the original digital signatures on the individual invocie PDF files, a very acceptable outcome would be a combined PDF with all of the digital signatures removed. 

 

There are more than a dozen people each performing this same action a dozen or more times a day. I was hoping for an easy way I can teach all of them that is straightforward and easily understood.

 

** Question(s)

  1. Is there a way we can combine all of the PDF together but keep the original signature (i.e. the graphic NOT the certified digital signature)?
  2. If #1 is not possible, is there a way we can combine all of the PDFs together and totally remove all of the digital signatures?
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1 reply

Bernd Alheit
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 6, 2021

You can combine the files as a portfolio.

Participating Frequently
October 7, 2021

This not a valid workaround, unfortunately.

 

After we merge the invoices together into a single PDF files to create the payment pack, we want to circulate the payment pack so that authorised signatories can sign the coversheet authorising the payment. Adobe Sign does not support portfolios. When you try to circulate a portfolio via Adobe Sign, you get a "For the best experience, open this PDF portfolio in Acrobat X or Adobe Reader X, or later. " message.

 

Anyone else have any ideas?

Legend
October 7, 2021

You need to train your users not to look at "digital signature placeholder" on the page. This is a serious problem, because if people are looking at this then they are wide open to fakes and fraud. They must be trained to treat this as only a hint, and how to properly validate actual signatures.