Nowadays, everything is done digitally. From uploading images to writing reports, technology has made it so easy to accomplish anything. When securing or dealing with documents, for example, there’s the Portable Document Format (PDF).
You’ve come into contact with the PDF format numerous times in your own personal life:
- Credit card and banking statements
- Receipts from online purchases
- Resumes sent in for job applications
- Tickets to events you purchased
PDF files are used for important content because the format itself locks down the content it contains. It is now a standard that important information like the above be saved in PDF rather than, say, a Word document.
The uses for the PDF file extend beyond personal needs, of course. In fact, it is used first and foremost by business and work professionals for exchanging critical data and information: business reports, invoices, contracts, financial statements, agreements, etc.
There are many PDF tools which allow users both personal and professional to work with the format at any level, whether it be for editing, creating, or converting. However, what about if you want to sign PDF, ensure that they’re secured?
Security is a huge topic these days. Next to online and computer security, document security is without doubt at the top of the list for just about anyone who works or interacts with PDF documents.
The Ultimate PDF Solution
We know that there are many PDF security tools available. Yet for affordability and versatility, the latest Able2Extract Professional 14 is our tool of choice. We already covered this tool before on How to Merge and Split PDFs, and it did an amazing job in simplifying the task.
This newest version was just released and we learned that the developers of the PDF suite, Investintech.com, included the ability to sign PDF to its already long list of features.
As we would expect from the way the software features are set up, the PDF signing process is simplified and easy for anyone to perform.
Electronically Sign PDF Documents
Able2Extract Professional 14 will let you add electronic (image) signatures and digital (cryptographic) signatures. Below we show you how to add an electronic signature.
- Open a PDF in Able2Extract.
- Open the Digital Signatures menu by going into View> selecting PDF Review Panels. Click on the pen icon in the side panel.
- Click on the Choose Signature button.
- Check the Add Signature Image option and click on the Create button.
- Type, draw or import a signature image.
- Click on the Add button.
- Click on the Sign button and place the signature on the page.
- Save the signed PDF by clicking on the Save button.
To add a cryptographic signature with one of your digital certificates, check the Digitally Sign the Document option at step 4 and you’ll be able to select the certificate and add it on before signing the PDF.
Verify Digital Signatures
In addition to signing a PDF document, you can also verify digital cryptographic signatures. For budding business users that need an advanced tool to work with such PDF signatures, this tool makes it easy.
You can tell, for instance, if a PDF has a valid digital signature. The padlock icon on an opened PDF document’s tab is an indicator if there is a digital signature attached to the PDF.
The color of the padlock icon will let you know if the signature is valid: Green means the signature is valid, orange means it’s valid but has some minor problems, and red indicates that it isn’t valid. You can also check the digital signature and certificate information by clicking on the signature in question in the Existing Digital Signatures section in the side panel.
Conclusion
As we mentioned, this tool is an all-around PDF suite. These new additions are on top of its existing features that also allow you to convert PDF to more than 10 formats, fill, create and edit PDF forms, custom convert PDF to Excel and edit PDF text and pages and more. Try and explore these features with a free Able2Extract download for 7 days.
