Populate Multiples of Same Signature from Same Individual

[edm1965]

So I have a two-page form already to go.  The only thing left to do is provide fields for signing/signatures.

On the first page there are 2 seperate places the REQUIRE signatures from the same individual. And on the second page of the form document there are another 2 distinct and seperate locations where the same individual is REQUIRED to sign.   So that make 4 places requiring the individual's signature(s).

So my question is this:  Is there a way for the person to sign once and have the other three locations populated with the same signature?

[Test Screen Name]

Digital signatures can't be used that way as they always apply to the whole document; attempts to limit their scope to pages or part of pages isn't right, and might be found to invalidate it if the instructions on the page suggest otherwise. Of course you can use a STAMP/scribble to fill in boxes for print purposes, but the real signatures should be done once.

[edm1965]

Well, the old paper form (double-sided) required exactly that. The trouble is, the form was invalid if all four locations weren't signed.  I figured it would save time and someone missing a location.  I need to duplicat that on this digital version.

[MikelKlink]

The paper form did not allow to sign all four fields with a single signature stroke, either. Thus, if your task is to make an electronic form equivalent to the paper form, then requiring four distinct signatures in the electronic form is the right thing to do.

In particular if there is a legal reason for signing four times, then using a single digital signature only (and merely visualizing them in all four places) would likely be legally invalid. At least some people surely would eventually try and repudiate their signature arguing they signed but once.

And all that being said, a PDF signature field according to the PDF specification must not have more than one widget (i.e. visualization on the document).

Admittedly, current Adobe Acrobat versions do not show a signature as invalid only for being in a field with multiple widgets.

[try67]

The problem is that workflows that were created for analog paper has been ported over to digital documents, without considering whether they are still desirable, or even feasible. When you had a contract with 20 pages you wanted to make sure that no pages were removed from it (or added to it) when it was signed, so it made sense to number each page, initial it, and then sign the last page in full (for example). None of that makes sense for a digital document that contains a digital signature, yet many institutions still require it to happen.

If you can't change the policy, then you should either follow it blindly (even if it doesn't make sense), or try to work around it. For example, you can use a stamp of a hand-written signature (or even a duplicated text field) on each page for the initials, and then an actual digital signature at the end of the process, on the last page.

If you have to do a full digital signature on each page, you'll need to either use a script to do it, or do it manually. Either way, it can cause issues, especially if the file has many pages, or needs to be signed by multiple people.