Create Signature Stamp in Adobe Acrobat

Joe WinogradDeveloper
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In a previous article published here at Experts Exchange, Signature Image with Transparent Background, I explained how to create a graphic image of your scanned signature with a transparent background. As discussed in that article, having the transparent background is crucial so that the signature may be placed on a document without overlaying the surrounding text.

In that article, I mentioned putting the signature on PDF documents via the Stamp feature in Adobe Acrobat. I recently received a message from an EE member who thanked me for that article, but asked me to explain exactly how to create such a Stamp in Acrobat. This article shows how to do it.

I don't know how far back the Stamp feature goes in the history of Adobe Acrobat releases, but I do know that it exists in Acrobat X and Acrobat XI, both Standard and Professional. The screenshots in this article are from Acrobat XI Pro on a W7 Pro 64-bit system.

In Acrobat, open the PDF file that you want to sign with the transparent signature image which you created after reading my previous article. The right side of the Toolbar in Acrobat will look like this (may vary somewhat depending on your Acrobat version):


Toolbar-right-side.jpg
Click the Comment tab and you will see the Annotations section, including the Stamp tool:


Annotations.jpg
Click the drop-down on the Stamp tool, then Custom Stamps, then Create Custom Stamp:


Create-Custom-Stamp.jpg

You will get this browse-for-file dialog:


Select-Image-for-Custom-Stamp.jpg
Click the Browse button and navigate to your transparent signature image that you created after reading my previous article. Note that the file type drop-down defaults to PDF, so you'll need to change that to PNG:


select-PNG-file-type-drop-down.jpg
After selecting your signature PNG file (in this demonstration, John Doe), the dialog box will look like this:


signature-image.jpg
Click OK to bring up the Create Custom Stamp dialog:


Create-Custom-Stamp-dialog.jpg
You may create a new category, but it makes sense to put it in Sign Here, one of the categories already in the drop-down. Give the new stamp a name, such as MySignature, and un-tick the Down sample stamp... box, so that the size is not reduced, thereby retaining the quality of the image. Here's what the dialog will look like now:


Create-Custom-Stamp-dialog-filled-in.jpg
Clicking the OK button will create the Stamp in the Sign Here category (or whatever new category you created).

To place the signature on the PDF, click the Stamp drop-down and select the signature stamp:


Select-John-Doe-signature.jpg
This will "attach" the stamp to the mouse pointer, allowing you to move the stamp around on the page to wherever you want to sign the document. When the stamp is at the place where you want it, simply — left-click! That's it! You may resize the signature with the standard sizing handles and move it around to fine-tune its placement. Here's what it looks like in my sample document:


Signing-PDF-in-Acrobat-with-transparent-
If you find this article to be helpful, please click the thumbs-up icon below. This lets me know what is valuable for EE members and provides direction for future articles. Thanks very much! Regards, Joe
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Joe WinogradDeveloper
CERTIFIED EXPERT
50+ years in computers
EE FELLOW 2017 — first ever recipient of Fellow award
MVE 2015,2016,2018
CERTIFIED GOLD EXPERT
DISTINGUISHED EXPERT

Comments (4)

Useful article! I figured out how to create a signature. But personally, I always have problems with convincing speech. Every time I make an informative presentation or write an article, I can not present it to the audience. The loss of information at the end causes errors and needs to be refined tasks for the whole company. This, in turn, interferes with the final result and formulates incorrect conclusions. I'm a writer at this company and I want to develop myself in the field of education. If you have any advice for me, I will hear them once. Thank you!

Commented:
great work, Joe Winograd, as always!
Joe WinogradDeveloper
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Commented:
You're welcome, Roy. I'm glad you found the article to be useful and that you can now create a signature in Acrobat. Regarding your request for advice in developing yourself in the field of education, I suggest posting a question in the Q&A section of EE by clicking the big blue Ask a Question button at the top of all pages. Questions in articles (or videos) should be related to that article (or video), whereas any question is appropriate in the main forum. Regards, Joe
Joe WinogradDeveloper
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Commented:
Thank you for the compliment, Megan — much appreciated! If you take a moment to click the thumbs-up icon at the bottom of the article, I'll be grateful. Thanks, Joe

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