Forms with ink-enabled fields

For the drawing issue, you can enable the PDF with usage rights for commenting and the end user can use the Comment & Markup tools in Reader to add drawing marks. Of course, these appear as comment markups.For a handwritten signature, you'd need to have the user print the form and sign it. One could use the Pencil tool to create a signature, but even on a Tablet PC it might look a little clumsy.

—ted

Ted, what if we need the signature to be part of the PDF so it can be submitted electronically? We are signing model release forms for photoshoots in remote locations and the whole reason to do it via PDF is to avoid having to make printouts and carry them around. We'd like to be able to enable a field to receive a handwritten signature entered via Tablet PC.

Once we have the form filled out we submit via e-mail and sign up the next model. Is it better to clear the PDF and send again as new data or should we add a new page to the existing PDF or should we create a separate PDF file for each model?

Thanks

Without a secure certificate, there is no validation of the signature. It is just a Jpeg of signature add to a file just like a rubber stamp. No way to validate the signature at a later date in a court of law.

A jpg signature is not inadmissible in a court of law. A faxed signature is legal and is just as vulnerable to tampering as an unsecured PDF. What matters is how the signature was gained and if it was indeed signed, and whether or not there is any challenge to the legitimacy of that signature. Our models wouldn't lie and say they never signed the contract anyway. We have witnesses saying they did and we videotape all our sessions anyway.

But let's leave the legal issues aside in favor of a solution. How can we use a tablet PC to input a signature into a PDF form?

That is your and your models choice. But I prepare several thundered U.S. government and various state forms that result in the transfer of millions of dollars and pen and ink signatures on paper or use of a special secured site and a unique pin number is required. No more faxed forms.

The U.S. Federal Register also has legal requirements that must be meet for use of electronic signatures that includes validation of the electronic signature
by a secure and trusted 3rd party.

The international form for which I work will start work based on a faxed signed contract, but will require a pen and ink signed contract before any interim of final work product is released.

This is a public forum and as such all readers and posters should make possible legal requirements clear.

P. S. You would not want to see what can be done with a scissors, whiteout, and a photocopier let alone a camera and a darkroom or computer for digital images.

OK... Not trying to be argumentative here. You are being helpful to make readers aware of mitigating considerations.

You're also dealing with governments and millions of dollars and all kinds of legal concerns on the line. I am talking about taking pictures of people and what amounts to an offhand formality of signing a release form so their picture can be printed.

But let's keep this question academic. I would still like a solution. Let's talk possibilities, not about what we can't do.

Can a PDF form field directly accept a handwritten signature from a tablet PC?

Anyone?

http://www.topazsystems.com/

This site sells signing pads and software for signing in Word, Excel, and Acrobat. Not sure if it will work with a tablet PC, but the software is free, so it doesn't hurt to try it out.