Skip to main content
tameraj78725492
tameraj78725492
Known Participant
March 25, 2025
Answered

Problem viewing signatures with docusign and authentisign

  • March 25, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 5101 views

Hi 
I am a Realtor.  I use Docusign through Keller Williams command.  When I send documents that are signed to the other Realtor and they use Authentisign to sign the documents, I cannot view their signatures.  however, when I upload them into docusign, I can see them.  The problem seems to be with Adobe.  I have Adobe Professional.   I attached an example of what is happening.  

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Correct answer MikelKlink

I contact Docusign, Authentisign and Adobe.  Docusign said it wasn't their problem.  Authentisign tried to help and said to flatten the document by printing in the chrome browser to pdf.  Adobe more or less said the same thing--they said that hopefully there would be a fix for it.  

My files are below.


Thanks for sharing those additional files. They confirmed what I had assumed. The Authentisign signature form field flattening code is buggy and creates the broken content.

 

So

quote

Docusign said it wasn't their problem.

 

That's right. Their output is ok.

quote

Authentisign tried to help and said to flatten the document by printing in the chrome browser to pdf.

 

Well, as their code damages the PDF, real help would be fixing their code for flattening signature widgets.

 

Of course you can work around their bug by completely removing or flattening the Docusign signature before forwarding your documents to the next signer. But the next signer may also be bewildered by the missing digital signature...

 

So that manual flattening approach merely would be a work-around while waiting for the Authentisign fix.

3 replies

K
kelli_0058
Participant
April 27, 2025

I am having the same problem now. I've been using Docusign for 15 years and never seen this happen.  I can open the signed PDF document emailed from the other Realtor on my phone and the signatures and initials appear but when I open the emailed document on my PC, they are not there. It's an Adobe issue if I can open it and see it correctly on my phone and not on Adobe Acrobat on my laptop. This is a problem! 

MikelKlink
MikelKlink
Participating Frequently
April 27, 2025
quote

It's an Adobe issue if I can open it and see it correctly on my phone and not on Adobe Acrobat on my laptop. This is a problem! 

 

Nope. Well, yes, it's a problem, but not an Adobe issue. 

The PDFs simply are broken. Well, at least the example file shared by Tamara is, see the content stream except i quoted in another comment. Some viewers may guess and display what was intended, but in particular signed documents shouldn't need to rely on correct guesswork to show as intended. 

 

K
kelli_0058
Participant
April 28, 2025

Thank you!  I couldn't get it to work after downloading that print production flattening tool but I'm not the one who had the document signed...another Realtor did and sent it to me.  So I printed it from my phone where it showed the signatures, and scanned the pages to the computer. Old school solutions. LOL  Where there's a will, there's a way. Now I know this happens though so when someone sends me an "unsigned" document - I won't think they're an idiot. I'll check it on my phone 1st!!

I
Ismail_Ahmed7882
Participant
March 25, 2025

It sounds like the issue might be related to how Authentisign applies signatures and how Adobe renders them. Try the following:

Open the document in Adobe Reader instead of Adobe Pro to check if the signatures appear.

Ensure "Show Hidden Annotations" is enabled in Adobe.

Try flattening the PDF by printing it to PDF before sending.

Check if Authentisign uses layered or XFA-based PDFs, which may not display correctly in some viewers.

 

tameraj78725492
tameraj78725492Author
Known Participant
March 25, 2025

I will try these--but you can't edit a signed document, so I don't think it will let me print to pdf or flatten.  

 

See attached.  I sent myself a document from docusign, signed it, then sent to authentisign and signed it.  It view correclty in docusign, in the adobe viewer on my browser, but not in adobe desktop.  I have tried this on two different computers using two different adobe pro accounts.  The Test Account signature is from Docusign, the Tamera Johnson signature is from Authentisign.

tameraj78725492
tameraj78725492Author
Known Participant
March 26, 2025

Thanks for sharing those additional files. They confirmed what I had assumed. The Authentisign signature form field flattening code is buggy and creates the broken content.

 

So

quote

Docusign said it wasn't their problem.

 

That's right. Their output is ok.

quote

Authentisign tried to help and said to flatten the document by printing in the chrome browser to pdf.

 

Well, as their code damages the PDF, real help would be fixing their code for flattening signature widgets.

 

Of course you can work around their bug by completely removing or flattening the Docusign signature before forwarding your documents to the next signer. But the next signer may also be bewildered by the missing digital signature...

 

So that manual flattening approach merely would be a work-around while waiting for the Authentisign fix.


Thank you, Mikellklink and others who responded.  Hopefully this will clear up soon.  I appreciate all of your help in getting this resolved.  

    MikelKlink
    MikelKlink
    Participating Frequently
    March 25, 2025
    quote

    The problem seems to be with Adobe. 

     

    That's unlikely. Whenever Acrobat displays an error message that there is a problem on some page, this usually means that there is an error in the PDF. 

    The reason why some PDF viewers do display the page as you expect it, is that PDF viewers generally try to fix some errors under the hood without reporting this, and that different viewers fix different sets of errors. Apparently the error in the file in question is fixed by the docusign viewer but not by Acrobat. 

    Considering, though, that this "fixing" always includes some guessing how the broken PDF actually was meant to look like, different fixing viewers may fix the issue differently. This obviously is critical in particular in case of contracts which should look the same for all parties involved. 

     

    That all being said, though, I'm afraid that without analyzing the PDF in question this is pure guesswork. Thus, can you share one such PDF? Maybe you can create some PDF with dummy data and try to recreate the issue together with that other realtor?

    tameraj78725492
    tameraj78725492Author
    Known Participant
    March 25, 2025

    Let me see what I can do. I can send a document to myself with docusign and authentisign. It isn't just this Realtor that I can't see their documents, it has been when docs are signed in authentisign. 

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices