Adobe Acrobat Reader is perhaps the most known PDF tool. After all, Adobe is the originator of the PDF file format. This tool comes with several handy features. This article will focus on the e-sign feature, which allows you to create digital signatures on Adobe Acrobat. You can then use them to sign PDF documents. The steps on how to digitally sign a pdf with adobe reader are provided below. Besides that, you'll learn the pros and cons of using Adobe Acrobat's digital signature tool. Suppose the flaws are enough to deter you from using this PDF solution. You can opt for the amazing alternative we will provide you with instead.
Please proceed to the next part to learn more about these topics.
Image Name: adobe-digital-sign Alt text: adobe acrobat pro website
How To Create a Signature on Adobe Reader?
Here's how to create a basic signature on Adobe Acrobat Reader.
1. Open the document you want to sign with Adobe Reader.
2. Click the sign icon on the top toolbar. Alternatively, click Tools > Fill & Sign or select Fill & Sign from the righ-thand toolbar.
Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-basic-2 Alt text: fill and sign tool on adobe
3. Click Fill & Sign.
Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-basic-3 Alt text: fill and sign tab on adobe
4. Click the Sign icon on the top toolbar.
5. Select between Add Signature and Add Initials.
Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-basic-5 Alt text: adding signature or initial on adobe
6. Choose from the different signature creation methods available. Select Type to type your name, which Adobe Reader would turn into a signature by applying a font style. Select Draw to draw your signature with your mouse or drawing tablet. Or select Image to import an image of your signature.
Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-basic-6 Alt text: creating basic signature on adobe
7. Click Apply. That signature should show on the screen the next time you click the Sign icon in the Fill & Sign tab.
How To Add a Digital Signature to a PDF With Adobe Reader
Digitally signing a PDF with Adobe Reader consists of 3 steps. You need to create a digital ID, customize its appearance, then finally add the digital signature to the PDF. Yes, you can add the signature you created with the steps above to the document and call it a day. However, the credibility of the documents you signed using that method is questionable. Adding a digital ID makes the sign more valid. Part 1: Create a Digital ID 1.Click Edit > Preferences > Signatures. 2.Click More... on Identifiers & Trusted Certificates. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-1 Alt text: creating digital id on adobe acrobat 3.Select Digital IDs. 4.Click the Add ID button. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-4 Alt text: adding an id on adobe acrobat 5.Select A new digital ID I want to create now, then click Next. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-5 Alt text: creating a new digital id adobe 6.Click Next. 7.Enter your identity information in the text boxes on the window that would pop up. Click Next once done. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-7 Alt text: adding information for adobe digital id 8.Create a password for your digital ID. This ensures only you can sign documents with your digital signature. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-8 Alt text: setting a password for the digital id 9.Click Next. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-9 Alt text: new digital id made with adobe Part 2: Customize the Appearance for Your Digital Signature. 1.Open any PDF file with Adobe Acrobat. 2.Click the sign icon on the top toolbar, or Tools > Fill & Sign, or Fill & Sign on the right toolbar. 3.Click Fill & Sign. 4.Click the Sign icon on the top toolbar. 5.Select the signature you created earlier and place it on the document. Take a screenshot of the signature and convert it into a PDF. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-appearance-5 Alt text: creating an image using adobe signature 6.Go back to Adobe Acrobat. Click Edit > Preferences > Signatures. 7.Click More under the Creation and Appearance section. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-appearance-7 Alt text: creating appearance for adobe digital signature 8.Click New. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-appearance-8 Alt text: making a new appearance in adobe 9.Give a title to your digital signature. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-appearance-9 Alt text: adding title to the new appearance 10.Under Configure Graphic, select Imported Graphic. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-appearance-10 Alt text: selecting imported graphic in adobe 11.Click the File button and import the appearance for the digital signature you just made. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-appearance-11 Alt text: importing the signature appearance to adobe 12.Click OK > Ok. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-appearance-12 Alt text: digital signature appearance imported to adobe 13.Under Configure Text, select the information from the digital ID you want to appear on the signature. This will help others verify your signature. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-appearance-13 Alt text: configuring text on digital id 14.Click OK once you are satisfied with your choices.
Part 3: Sign the PDF
1.Open the PDF you want to sign. 2.Click Tools > Certificates. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-signing-2 Alt text: certificates tool in adobe 3.Select Digitally Sign. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-signing-3 Alt text: digital sign feature on adobe 4.Click and drag your pointer on the document to create a box where your digital signature will appear. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-signing-4 Alt text: drawing a box for the digital signature 5.Select the digital ID you created. Click Continue. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-signing-5 Alt text: selecting a digital id on adobe 6.Select the appearance you created. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-signing-6 Alt text: choosing the appearance for the signature 7.Check the box for Lock document after signing to boost its credibility further. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-signing-7 Alt text: locking the document after signing 8.Type the password for your digital ID and click Sign. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-signing-8 Alt text: typing the digital id password 9.Name the signed document and save it. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-signing-9 Alt text: digitally signed document on adobe You can also watch this video to see how signing a PDF on Adobe Reader is done.
How To Share and Send PDFs for Signatures and How To Track Them
You can also use Adobe Reader to ask others for e-signatures. Follow these steps: 1.Open the PDF you want other people to sign with Adobe Reader. 2.Click Adobe Sign on the right-hand panel. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-send-2 Alt text: sign tool on adobe acrobat toolbar 3.Type the email addresses of the people you want to sign the document. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-send-3 Alt text: adding recipients on adobe acrobat 4.(Optional) Add a message. 5.Click Continue. 6.Adobe Acrobat will prompt you to review the properties of form fields in the document. Confirm that they have the right properties. Click the Field Detection icon at the top left. Double-click each field to review its properties. Click Ok when everything is as it should be. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-send-6 Alt text: reviewing form fields on adobe acrobat 7.Click Send. You will receive an email confirming that the file has been sent. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-send-7 Alt text: document sent to recipients through adobe To track the documents you sent for signing, follow these steps: 1.Go to Adobe Acrobat Reader's Home view. 2.Click For Signature under Shared. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-tracking-1 Alt text: tracking documents you sent on adobe You will see a list of all signed documents, documents waiting for signatures, and an activity audit trail. Also, you will receive notifications when recipients do something with the document you shared. Furthermore, you will receive a copy of the document once the recipient has signed it.
Pros & Cons of Adobe Acrobat
Here are the pros and cons of the signature feature in Adobe Acrobat. Pros ●Has support for electronic and digital signatures. ●The digital signature tool is very reliable. Viewers of the signed documents can easily verify the authenticity of the digitally signed documents. ●Adobe allows you to send PDFs to others to request their signatures. You can use the app to track the sent documents, and you will automatically receive a copy of the document once the recipient has signed it. Cons ●Adobe Acrobat Reader, the free version, is only a PDF viewer. If you want to access the signature function, you need to get Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, which costs $12.99 per month. It is a little expensive. ●The program does not accept JPEG or PNG for digital ID signature appearance. You first need to convert the image into a PDF file so that you can use it. So, creating new appearances for digital signatures is quite a tedious task. ●The process of creating a digital signature is a little complicated. It's not very beginner-friendly. ●Creating a digital signature takes too long. Unfortunately, Adobe Acrobat’s sign feature has glaring imperfections. The signing process may be too convoluted for some. So, you may want to use a more user-friendly alternative. Below is a PDF sign solution that has a lower learning curve.
Sign PDFs With PDFelement, an Easy-To-Use Alternative to Adobe Acrobat
PDFelement is a PDF solution with lots of powerful tools. Many of these features come for free, and you can unlock more capabilities by getting the premium version. So, even without purchasing the higher tiers, you can use PDFelement to edit PDF documents. And that includes digitally signing them. To digitally sign PDF documents using PDFelement, follow these steps: 1.Open the PDF document you want to sign with Wondershare PDFelement. 2.Click Protect > Sign Document. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-2 Alt text: sign document tool on pdfelement 3.Click once on the spot in the document where you want the digital signature to appear. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-3 Alt text: placing a box for digital signature 4.Select New ID > I want to create a new digital ID. Click Next. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-4 Alt text: creating new digital id on pdfelement 5.Click Next. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-5 Alt text: selecting where to store digital id 6.Provide the needed information for your Digital ID. Click Next. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-6 Alt text: adding information to the digital id 7.Set a password for your digital ID. Click Finish. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-7 Alt text: setting a password for digital id 8.Type your password. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-8 Alt text: typing password for the digital id 9.In the Appearance section, select Create New Style. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-9 Alt text: creating new appearance for digital id 10.Give a title to the appearance of the digital signature. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-10 Alt text: creating title for digital id 11.Select Imported Graphic. Click Browse > Browse and import an image of your signature you have saved on your computer. Click Ok. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-11 Alt text: signature appearance added to pdfelement 12.Click OK. 13.Check the box for Lock Document After Signing. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-13 Alt text: locking the document after signing option 14.Click Sign to save the signed PDF. Image Name: adobe-digital-sign-pdfelement-13 Alt text: digital signature created with pdfelement
Adobe Acrobat vs. Wondershare PDFelement
Which tool should you install on your device, Adobe Acrobat or Wondershare PDFelement? Let us compare the two so that it's easier for you to determine. Both Adobe Acrobat and Wondershare PDFelement have a fast loading time. Also, they both have a digital signature feature. But that feature comes with what else? Adobe Acrobat has more advanced tools. For instance, you can use this tool to send PDFs to others and ask for their signatures. PDFelement has more available features, especially when it comes to reviewing and annotating PDFs. PDFelement is also easier to use. Digitally signing a PDF is much more streamlined. To illustrate, Adobe Acrobat requires you to convert the image you want to use as the digital signature's appearance into PDF. On the other hand, PDFelement lets you use an image. And what about their pricing? As Adobe Acrobat has higher-quality features, it is no surprise that it is pricier than PDFelement. It costs $24.99 per user per month. In comparison, pricing for PDFelement starts at $29.99 per quarter, equal to $9.99 per month. In conclusion, you have to pay for Adobe Acrobat to edit PDFs, while you can do that for free in PDFelement. Though, you must get the paid version to remove the watermark on PDFelement. Conclusion Adobe Acrobat is a great tool for digitally signing PDF documents. But if you are looking for a cheaper alternative with the same reliability, you can opt for Wondershare PDFelement instead. PDFelement allows you to add digital signatures to PDF documents quickly and easily. Not just that. PDFelement also comes with other features like form recognition, data extraction, OCR, and more. And these tools are available in the free version.
