Participating Frequently

Question

Digital signatures appearing as an image behind the signature blocks

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
April 16, 2020
2 replies
12914 views

Hi,

I have Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, version 2015.006.30518. I have created a PDF from Word, added signature blocks and saved as Reader Extended PDF, as we always do. Some people from my company have signed the document, so far so good, and then this document was sent to the client, who also signed it and returned it to us. To my surprise, all signatures are gone and I can edit the PDF. But, if I choose not to "higlight existing fields" I can see the signatures behind the blocks. They are not really signatures, however, since they do not appear in the signature panel and I can sign the document.

This has never happened before, what's going on?

Thanks

Cover_signed_by_all.pdf

Security digital signatures and esignatures

This topic has been closed for replies.

ls_rbls

Community Expert

If in your original PDF , when you right-click on the field, and go to the "Sign Tab" you should have by default the radio button ticked "nothing happens when signed" correct?

I would say that before you send this document for signatures again, you may need to save your your PDF using "Save As Other" ---> "Reader Extended" --->> Enable More Tools, and also protect the document with password and set editing and printing restrictions.

I tested with different options creating self-signed certificates and I am under the impression that your Client may have someone too savvy with Acrobat and tried to do something that in the end resulted in a mess.

The behavior shown in your screenshots shouldn't occur.

Belen FernandezAuthor

Participating Frequently

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the radio button ticked "nothing happens when signed". Where can I check that?

We always save the PDF using "Save As Other" ---> "Reader Extended" --->> Enable More Tools after placing the signatures blocks, I will try using a password too, although once the document is signed (and it was signed), nobody should be able to modify it.

Thank you for your suggestions and your time!

ls_rbls

Community Expert

True but you want to make sure that no one opens the unrestricted document and start playing around with Acrobat features before signing.

As for the radio button that I was referering to, it is found in the the signature field when you right-click on it. Select "Properties" from the context menu and then click on the "Signed " tab. You will see a few options there.

Meenakshi_Negi

Legend

Hi Belen Fernandez,

Thank you for reaching out.

I did check your PDF form attached with the post. The form works fine on both Reader DC and Acrobat DC.

When I try to open the PDF in Acrobat, it showed only the form fields. No signature visible. However, few signatures were visible on opening PDF in Reader.

I did try to add signature to the form and it worked on both the application. Please check the links mentioned below:

- https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A164963a0-73a4-4b26-a944-6d63fcf1ceb9

- https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A78142252-c277-4051-ad9d-97124640175d

Let us know if you can view the test signature or image of the signature.

(Note: I have removed the email addressess of the members in the list)

Could you please share the exact workflow you did to create the form and send it for signature? It will help us to replicate the issue on our end.

We will be waiting for your response.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Meenakshi

Belen FernandezAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Meenakshi,

Thank you for your reply.

I have downloaded the two files and I can see your signature, just as I can see the signatures of the member of my team before they sent the document to the client. I cannot attach this document because I cannot delete any pages and it contains sensitive information.

I exported to PDF from Word 2013. Ah, I just remembered, I attached a PDF and created a link to open it, but this have neved caused any problem. After that, I added digital signature blocks and saved as Reader Extended PDF >> Enable more tools. And that's all, I don't know why the client cannot sign using the signature block or how the signatures of my team dissapeared. Could this be because of diferent versions of Adobe?

Thanks,

Belén

ls_rbls

Community Expert

××Adding to the discussion,

I think the problem is in the integration of the PDF Maker Add-in in MS Word.

I was trying to help another user with convert to PDF amd mailmerge from Word.

If you set password protection to protect the documents, this is lost during the conversion. And it doesn't seem to matter how you fix it.

You're going to have to make a copy of the original document, and run the Accessibility Checker in MS Word to spot and correct errors before you convert it to PDF.

OR, run the Accessibility Checker, in Acrobat to see whatis wrong with the PDF that was exported to MS Word.

As a Microsoft support user suggested to another person here in the forums yesterday, you may have to look into XML file configuration entries and edit or delete the problematic co figuration entry.

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