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Digital signature assurances. What is a digital signature? A digital signature is an electronic, encrypted, stamp of authentication on digital information such as email messages, macros, or electronic documents. A signature confirms that the information originated from the signer and has not been altered. The following is an example of a signature line.
Signing your business documents used to be easy. With the rise in online paperless documents, including your signature can be tricky. However, Apple's Mac OS X includes user-friendly signature creation embedded in the native Preview app. An image of your handwritten signature is captured once and can be included with a click in thousands of documents.
Capture Your Signature
1.Open the Preview app located in your Applications folder.
2.Sign your signature in the center of a blank sheet of white printer paper.
3.Select 'Preferences' from the 'Preview' menu to open the Preferences panel. Select the 'Signatures' tab.
4.Click the 'Add Signature' plus button at the bottom of the list of signatures.
5.Hold the signed sheet of paper in front of the built-in camera on your Mac, typically located above the screen. Hold a few extra sheets of paper behind the signed sheet to keep light from shining through and decreasing the quality of the captured image. Click 'Accept' to capture the signature.
Insert Your Signature
1.Make the 'Edit' toolbar visible by clicking the 'Show Edit Toolbar' at the top of the window.
2.Select the 'Signature' annotation tool from the Edit toolbar or by opening the 'Tools' menu, 'Annotate' submenu and selecting 'Signature.'
3.Click and drag to draw out a box for your signature in the place you wish to sign the document. Move or re-size to perfect the position.
Tip
- Preview's signature feature was added in OS X 10.7 Lion.
Warnings
- Annotations layers in Preview may not be compatible with all PDF programs.
- Export your signed document by selecting 'Print' and clicking the 'Save as PDF' option. This flattens the layers and makes sure everything is visible.
References (2)
About the Author
Chris Daniels covers advances in nutrition and fitness online. Daniels has numerous certifications and degrees covering human health, nutritional requirements and sports performance. An avid cyclist, weightlifter and swimmer, Daniels has experienced the journey of fitness in the role of both an athlete and coach.
Cite this Article Choose Citation Style
Daniels, Chris. 'How to Create an Electronic Signature on a Mac.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-electronic-signature-mac-56332.html. Accessed 26 November 2019.
Daniels, Chris. (n.d.). How to Create an Electronic Signature on a Mac. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-electronic-signature-mac-56332.html
![Digital Signature In Excel For Mac Digital Signature In Excel For Mac](/uploads/1/2/5/6/125684978/569032221.png)
Daniels, Chris. 'How to Create an Electronic Signature on a Mac' accessed November 26, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/create-electronic-signature-mac-56332.html
Note: Depending on which text editor you're pasting into, you might have to add the italics to the site name.
If you don’t own a scanner, signing and scanning a document becomes… somewhat problematic.
In the past, you had 2 options:
- Go to Office Depot.
- Make a short-term friendship with someone who owns a scanner.
Exhausting… but there is an easier way.
Since OS X 10.7 Lion you could add signatures in Preview. With OS X 10.10 Yosemite you can embed signatures in documents sent via Apple Mail.
What kind of documents? Anything that’s a PDF or an image; i.e., any document.
Signatures In Preview
Preview is Apple’s version of Adobe Reader. It’s a fast, easy-to-use, way to view and edit PDFs and images.
You can read more about it here – How To… Save A Document On Your Mac As A PDF File
To get started:
- Get a sheet of white paper. Sign it. If you make a mistake, use a clean sheet of paper and sign again.
- Open a PDF or image in Preview.
- Go to View in the Menu Bar and choose Show Markup Toolbar or click the Markup icon on the App Toolbar.
- The Annotation Toolbar appears at the top of the PDF or image.
- Click the signature icon.
- If you don’t see the signature icon, go to Tools in the Menu Bar, choose Annotate, select Signature and then Manage Signatures.
- Go to the section below Capturing Your Signature.
Signatures In Apple Mail
Remember, you need to be running OS X 10.10 Yosemite to use this feature:
- Get a sheet of white paper. Sign it. If you make a mistake, use a clean sheet of paper and sign again.
- Open Apple Mail. Create a new email. Add a PDF or image attachment in the body of the letter.
- Hover the cursor over the top right-hand corner of the embedded PDF or image.
- A drop-down arrow appears.
- Click the arrow and select Markup…
- The PDF or image opens in a pop-up window with a Markup toolbar.
- Click the signature icon.
- Go to the section below Capturing Your Signature.
Capturing Your Signature
- There are 2 tabs; Trackpad and Camera.
- Choose Camera. The camera on your Mac is located at the top of the screen.
- Notice the blue line across the bottom of the camera image.
- Hold your signed piece of paper up to the camera and try to align it with the blue line.
- Don’t worry about any background discoloration. This has no impact on the result.
- Once your signature touches the blue line, hold it steady… and the camera takes a snapshot.
- If you make a mistake, just click Clear and try again.
- When you are happy with the result, click Done.
- Now, you get to try it out.
Adding Your Signature To A Document
- Click the signature icon in the Annotation Toolbar.
- A drop-down menu shows any signatures you have saved.
- Click your signature and it’s appears in your document.
- You can resize the signature by moving any of the four blue points.
- So… now you have a clean signature that can be adapted to work on a document of any size.
As long as the document is open in Preview or Apple Mail you can manipulate and delete the signature.
Once you close and save the document, the signature is embedded and can’t be removed.
Signature Security
Once you create a signature and close that document, your signature is saved. It’s now available in Preview and Apple Mail.
You can add more signatures if you wish. You can also delete a signature, by clicking the X next to it in the signature drop-down menu on the Annotation Toolbar.
If you rarely need to sign electronic documents, it’s probably a good idea to delete your signature immediately after use.
If you intend to keep your signature handy, at the very least change your Security & Privacy settings in System Preferences to require a password immediately after your Mac goes to sleep or starts a screensaver.
That’s it.
If you’d like to read a post about Preview’s annotation tools, click How To… Markup A PDF Using Preview
To read more about Apple Mail’s new annotation tools, click Markup… Apple Mail Annotation With Yosemite
Have a fine weekend.
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