Prepare transparent image to use as a stamp

Steven,
Have you tried using the image of your signature as is to make the stamp and then using an opacity setting of, say 15% or 20%, for the signature stamp?

In Windows, MS Photo Editor permits some transperancy play for GIF, TIFF, or PNG.

Be well...

i understand that you want to place a graphic of your signature behind (not on top) of other text and graphics on a page. forget the transparent stamp approach -- as far as i can tell, the stamp tool always places the graphic on top and you may not want to make the on-top signature graphic partially transparent. the following tips should give you a start towards a solution: the key is to use the watermark tool. (you should read the on-line help re watermark tool and experiment, as there are many variations and settings.) First, scan your signature to a monochrome pdf at 300 dpi and with the image sized of, say, 2"x1". Next, apply the graphic as a watermark (document> watermark> add); in 'source' box browse to the file (the signature or other graphic). Settings: in 'appearance' box select 'appear behind'; disrgard 'position' settings; 'absolute scale' seems to work better than 'scale relative to page'. (later you might experiment with 'page range options' and 'appearance options' and other settings) Save the watermarked pdf file. Now, you have the pdf with your signature graphic 'behind' text and other elements, but your graphic is probably not in the desired position. Using the 'touchup object' tool, you can reposition and resize the signature graphic. These tips should give you a start.

Hi Steven D,

I happen to have Adobe Photoshop, and if you have it, you can do this too - if not, I would be happy to do this for you - just email it to mjahn_at_iqcolor.com.

I did this for all of the staff and this works much better than a watermark, as it accomplished exactly what you want and using the stamp - you will like the stamp as you can place it anywhere you want and scale it if you need to.

So, I scanned my signature - I change it to greyscale - I then created a new layer (that is, I duplicated the background) - now, i have a layer and turn off the background (make it not visible) - I then use the magic want tool,set it to about 10-15 toerance, then select white - then, under the the Select menu, select Similar from the menu, this gets all the white inside loops and o's and such - then i delete - now, I have a nice signature on a transparent background - save as PNG (or PDF) from Photoshop.

No, In Acrobat, go to the Coments > Commenting Tools > Stamps >Create Custom Stamp - I think you know the drill from there...Now, you 'stamp' has a transpaerent background, and it is "compound" - that is, the stuff behind it shows through.

EXTRA EXPERT bonus - As PNG and PDF support 8 biy masks - when you were in Photoshop, you could shink that selection, then feather 1 or two pixels (depending on you resolution) - this makes a 'soft edged' mask, which prints very very nice. Unfortunately, you can't select "darken" or "multiply" yet - that would make it perfect (I guess you would need to hop into Adobe InDesign for that)

Good luck, hope that helps.

Works for me !

Thanks everyone for contributing. I appreciate the help.

Mechaelejahn,

Thanks for the Photoshop technique. That did the trick. I now have a signature image to use.

I need an image that will be placed on top of graphics or a signature line in a form. Something where the signature doesn't need to be validated. Now I have one that works like I want.

Thanks.

Hello, I'm using Acrobat Pro 8 and I'm unable to get this to work. I've got the transparent image in Photoshop, saved for web as a PNG-8, PNG-24, and a GIF with transparency, but when I create a new stamp using any of those, the transparency does not work.

Any ideas?

Nevermind, I figured it out. PNG-8 does not work, but PNG-24, GIF, and PDF do.

I didn't think it was working because it was showing a white background in the first step, but once I went further through the process of creating the stamp, it did show up as transparent.

I hope this helps others that are as confused as I was!

Since getting an answer to this back in 2008 I scrapped using Photoshop and found an easier and better way to do what I needed by using GIMP. I don't have to mess with layers and jump through hoops just to get a png where the background is transparent. I just open a scanned signature in GIMP and make sure the mode is RGB then I select Color to Alpha from the Colors menu and go from there.