Initial Only for Adobe Sign

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
September 7, 2025
2 replies
423 views

Adobe sign does not seem to allow me to add a signer that only needs to initial. I keep getting a message that it will add a signature line to the bottom of the document. How can I remove that? I have 2 signers. 1 needs to do a full signature, but the other only needs to initial the document and I cannot find anywhere to explain this process.

Security digital signatures and esignatures

Correct answer Randy Hagan

Will that second signer initialing these particular documents never have to digitally sign a document?

If the second signer will never have to sign a digital document with a full name, it's even easier.. Just make a scanned signature with a set of initials, and allow some extra room where initials appear in a document to allow for the digital signature flag. But realize that you're crippling the ability to digitally sign a full name name for other documentation.

I'm getting the idea that this is being done more for digital appearances than digital record for your second signer. Whether you put that digital signature down with the impression of a full name or just two initials, it's still going to be a full digital signature as far as Acrobat and Adobe Sign is concerned. The only question would be whether that signatory would ever have to sign onto documents with their full name in other situations.

Good luck,

Randy

ayalcohn

Participant

When you are adding recipients, if you change someone’s role from signer to approver, than the document will allow you to proceed with only their initials.

Randy Hagan

Community Expert

Adobe Acrobat Pro/Adobe Sign don't make the distinction you do here. Both make provisions for digital signatures, or don't.

That doesn't mean that you can't engineer a way to give the impression of initialing instead of signing off. I'm normally not a fan of AI analyses, but I got a pretty good response on how to create what you want. It basically entails creating a "signed name" digital signature, which can include the scanned impression of a full signature, and an "initials" digital signature, which can include the scanned impression of a set of initials. You can learn more about this through this link.

In both cases, Adobe Sign will be applying a full digital signature, but the view to the end user will be different. Of course, in the instance(s) where both a signature and initials are required, it can be accomplished using the "signed name" digital signature. But if you must give your end user the impression of "initialing" documents instead of signing them, that can be done.

Hope this helps,

Randy

E

ep_userAuthor

Participant

Just to clarify, it's not 1 signer with 2 signatures. It's 2 separate signers. 1 signer is a full signature and the 2nd signer is initials only.

Randy Hagan

Correct answer

Community Expert

Will that second signer initialing these particular documents never have to digitally sign a document?

If the second signer will never have to sign a digital document with a full name, it's even easier.. Just make a scanned signature with a set of initials, and allow some extra room where initials appear in a document to allow for the digital signature flag. But realize that you're crippling the ability to digitally sign a full name name for other documentation.

I'm getting the idea that this is being done more for digital appearances than digital record for your second signer. Whether you put that digital signature down with the impression of a full name or just two initials, it's still going to be a full digital signature as far as Acrobat and Adobe Sign is concerned. The only question would be whether that signatory would ever have to sign onto documents with their full name in other situations.

Good luck,

Randy

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