In the past we've talked about how to scan your signature to help go paperless. In this post, we are going to look at the fundamentals behind sending truly encrypted emails and documents that can be verified with a digital signature. The idea is to show you the concepts so you understand what is going on behind the scenes to make a secure communication channel over email. So why spend the time on this? As we switch to doing more business over the internet, secure communications are going to become much more important. Even if you don't have a use for encryption right now, you probably will over the next 3 to 5 years (if not before). There is a lot of value in understanding why email … [Read more...] about Digital Signature & Encryption
digital signature
How to Create a Scanned Digital Signature
If you like this article you might also enjoy our post about how to use your signature to sign documents in Acrobat. We also have a number of other articles about going paperless and one on Digital Signatures and Encryption that might be useful. If you want to create a scanned electronic version of your signature, there are several ways to do it. The "right" way would be to send your signature to a company that will create a truetype font of your entire signature so you can print it at any size and still have the beautiful vector drawn lines. The easy way to do it is to scan in your signature and remove the background. If you make it large enough and scan at a high enough … [Read more...] about How to Create a Scanned Digital Signature
Dealing with Signatures and Email
Today an insurance company needed my signature, and they sent me a TIFF of the file. I used my scanned signature, added it to the TIFF and sent it back. They said they couldn't accept that because it came over email. Since the document they sent me had their signature, I asked if I should reject it because it came to me over email. The agents said I was "too funny". I sent them the same TIFF via fax and they seemed happy with that. This is why we need to get everyone using true digital signatures and encryption on email. … [Read more...] about Dealing with Signatures and Email
Scanned Signatures and Handwriting
Previously we've looked at how to create a scanned signature that you can use to sign documents without printing them out. Today we are going to look at how to get your signature and handwriting into a font that you can use on your computer. First off, lets look at why you'd want to do something like this. Benefits of a Scanned Signature and Handwriting Having your signature as a font has some big advantages over having it as a .PNG or .GIF file. Fonts are mathematical representations of the shapes they contain. This means you don't get jagged edges, no matter how big you make it. .PNG or .GIF files work ok if you are making them smaller, but you will start to see artifacts and jagged … [Read more...] about Scanned Signatures and Handwriting
Paperless Infrastructure
Businesses have much to gain by moving to paperless communication with their customers. Just think how much money credit card companies could save if even 5% of their customers switched to paperless communication. The problem is that most companies seem to get the whole idea of "paperless" wrong. Their solution for people who want to be paperless is that they will send you an email notifying you that you have a statement. Then you can log into their website and download the statement as a PDF. This is about equivalent to having a mailman who knocks on your door to tell you there is a letter for you at the post-office. This reflects a type of arrogance (or stupidity) that is typical of … [Read more...] about Paperless Infrastructure
Paperless Signing and Faxing
When it comes to dealing with faxes my two biggest timesavers are using a scanned signature and the ability to sign documents from Acrobat. These two things make a huge difference in my ability to work from anywhere I have an internet connection. … [Read more...] about Paperless Signing and Faxing
Using a Digital Signature?
I'm curious how many readers are using digital signatures. If you use a digital signature, please take a moment to leave a comment letting me know what you use and why you use it. … [Read more...] about Using a Digital Signature?