Draw signatures without locking or certifying

[chrism79752971]

I have a PDF form that requires several 'signatures'.

There is no requirement for digital signing and I do not want to lock the document - Ideally I want the signature fields to behave like a regular text box but with the option to allow the user to fill it in with a stylus or a finger on a touch device. It can just be inserted like a picture or any other field.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[try67 · Accepted solution]

You can use an image field to allow the users to insert a picture of a wet signature, or just an empty space where they can use the commenting tools to draw their signature directly.

[chrism79752971]

Thanks,

Just tried that - is there any way to use the signing fields as they have a very nice user interface? Using commenting/drawing tools is a little too fiddly for the space and the image insert isn't going to work for users I'm afraid. The built in signature field is really nice as it allows a full page popup to sign in but i just don't want the document to be locked down.

It's an A4 document on a tablet computer with 3 or 4 signature boxes at the bottom that need to be filled in.

[try67]

No. A digital signature will lock the file. You need to use something else.

[Josh_Corey]

You can try using Fill & Sign in the Document Cloud or in Acrobat/Reader, or in iOS or Android app - the file is not locked after signing, but the existing filled fields are, but you or another user could continue to fill in the form after someone has signed it.

Tutorial:

https://helpx.adobe.com/document-cloud/help/fill-and-sign.html

Thanks,

Josh

[Joshua Samos]

This is a stupid problem that comes from Adobe removing choices and trying to funnel all users down one pathway. Older versions of acrobat enabled this without locking. Adobe broke their own product

[Melandy23720849oyhm]

I agree. I've been fighting this issue for a while. There's no reason to have the entire document locked for editing after a signature has been added when you've set the signature field properties to DO NOTHING when signed. Frustrating.

[Joshua Samos]

Acrobat is Adobe's Swiss Army Knife, full of nearly unrelated tools. It's very handy for many things, too. But they keep changing and/or re-arranging the tools. Then they fiddle with the workflow, endlessly, and per their MO they try to make some part of it a profit center. Messing with Acrobat for innumerable reasons has led to many SNAFUs over the two decades of its existence. Yet we rely on it, so the fiddling is an aggravation. I still cringe whenever I upgrade because I know everything will be changed, moved, or crippled. At the same time, I applaud better functionality for editing PDFs for example. Acrobat also contains so many weird dialog boxes full of indecipherable choices. If they could re-write those in simple, clear English it would really help, but if they have to change everything else to do it, I would say to just leave it alone.