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Administer
- Admin Console Overview
- User Management
- Adding users
- Create function-focused users
- Check for users with provisioning errors
- Change Name/Email Address
- Edit a user's group membership
- Edit a user's group membership through the group interface
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- User Identity Types and SSO
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- Product Profiles
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- Global Settings
- Account tier and ID
- New Recipient Experience
- Self Signing Workflows
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- Collect form data with agreements
- Limited Document Visibility
- Attach a PDF copy of the signed agreement
- Include a link in the email
- Include an image in the email
- Files attached to email will be named as
- Attach audit reports to documents
- Merge multiple documents into one
- Download individual documents
- Upload a signed document
- Delegation for users in my account
- Allow external recipients to delegate
- Authority to sign
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- Power to add Electronic Seals
- Set a default time zone
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- Users in Multiple Groups (UMG)
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- Replace recipient
- Audit Report
- In Product Messaging and Guidance
- Accessible PDFs
- New authoring experience
- Healthcare customer
- Account Setup
- Add logo
- Customize company Hostname/URL
- Add company name
- Post agreement URL redirect
- Signature Preferences
- Well formatted signatures
- Allow recipients to sign by
- Signers can change their name
- Allow recipients to use their saved signature
- Custom Terms of Use and Consumer Disclosure
- Navigate recipients through form fields
- Decline to sign
- Allow Stamps workflows
- Require signers to provide their Title or Company
- Allow signers to print and place a written signature
- Show messages when e-signing
- Require signers to use a mobile device to create their signature
- Request IP address from signers
- Exclude company name and title from participation stamps
- Digital Signatures
- Electronic Seals
- Digital Identity
- Report Settings
- New report experience
- Classic report settings
- Security Settings
- Single Sign-on settings
- Remember-me settings
- Login password policy
- Login password strength
- Web session duration
- PDF encryption type
- API
- User and group info access
- Allowed IP Ranges
- Account Sharing
- Account sharing permissions
- Agreement sharing controls
- Signer identity verification
- Agreement signing password
- Document password strength
- Block signers by Geolocation
- Phone Authentication
- Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA)
- Allow page extraction
- Document link expiration
- Upload a client certificate for webhooks/callbacks
- Timestamp
- Send settings
- Show Send page after login
- Require recipient name when sending
- Lock name values for known users
- Allowed recipient roles
- Allow e-Witnesses
- Recipient groups
- Required fields
- Attaching documents
- Field flattening
- Modify Agreements
- Agreement name
- Languages
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- Allowed signature types
- Reminders
- Signed document password protection
- Send Agreement Notification through
- Signer identification options
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- Enable Notarize transactions
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- Signing order
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- Message Templates
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- SAML Settings
- SAML Configuration
- Install Microsoft Active Directory Federation Service
- Install Okta
- Install OneLogin
- Install Oracle Identity Federation
- SAML Configuration
- Data Governance
- Time Stamp Settings
- External Archive
- Account Languages
- Email Settings
- Migrating from echosign.com to adobesign.com
- Configure Options for Recipients
- Guidance for regulatory requirements
- Accessibility
- HIPAA
- GDPR
- 21 CFR part 11 and EudraLex Annex 11
- Healthcare customers
- IVES support
- "Vaulting" agreements
- EU/UK considerations
- Download Agreements in Bulk
- Claim your domain
- Report Abuse links
Send, Sign, and Manage Agreements
- Recipient Options
- Cancel an email reminder
- Options on the e-signing page
- Overview of the e-sign page
- Open to read the agreement without fields
- Decline to sign an agreement
- Delegate signing authority
- Restart the agreement
- Download a PDF of the agreement
- View the agreement history
- View the agreement messages
- Convert from an electronic to a written signature
- Convert from a written to an electronic signature
- Navigate the form fields
- Clear the data from the form fields
- E-sign page magnification and navigation
- Change the language used in the agreement tools and information
- Review the Legal Notices
- Adjust Acrobat Sign Cookie Preferences
- Send Agreements
- Authoring fields into documents
- In-app authoring environment
- Create forms with text tags
- Create forms using Acrobat (AcroForms)
- Fields
- Authoring FAQ
- Sign Agreements
- Manage Agreements
- Manage page overview
- Delegate agreements
- Replace Recipients
- Limit Document Visibility
- Cancel an Agreement
- Create new reminders
- Review reminders
- Cancel a reminder
- Access Power Automate flows
- More Actions...
- How search works
- View an agreement
- Create a template from an agreement
- Hide/Unhide agreements from view
- Upload a signed agreement
- Modify a sent agreement's files and fields
- Edit a recipient's authentication method
- Add or modify an expiration date
- Add a Note to the agreement
- Share an individual agreement
- Unshare an agreement
- Download an individual agreement
- Download the individual files of an agreement
- Download the Audit Report of an agreement
- Download the field content of an agreement
- Audit Report
- Reporting and Data exports
- Overview
- Grant users access to reporting
- Report charts
- Data Exports
- Rename a report/export
- Duplicate a report/export
- Schedule a report/export
- Delete a report/export
- Check Transaction Usage
Advanced Agreement Capabilities and Workflows
- Webforms
- Reusable Templates (Library templates)
- Transfer ownership of web forms and library templates
- Power Automate Workflows
- Overview of the Power Automate integration and included entitlements
- Enable the Power Automate integration
- In-Context Actions on the Manage page
- Track Power Automate usage
- Create a new flow (Examples)
- Triggers used for flows
- Importing flows from outside Acrobat Sign
- Manage flows
- Edit flows
- Share flows
- Disable or Enable flows
- Delete flows
- Useful Templates
- Administrator only
- Agreement archival
- Webform agreement archival
- Save completed web form documents to SharePoint Library
- Save completed web form documents to OneDrive for Business
- Save completed documents to Google Drive
- Save completed web form documents to Box
- Agreement data extraction
- Agreement notifications
- Send custom email notifications with your agreement contents and signed agreement
- Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in a Teams Channel
- Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Slack
- Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Webex
- Agreement generation
- Generate document from Power App form and Word template, send for signature
- Generate agreement from Word template in OneDrive, and get signature
- Generate agreement for selected Excel row, send for review and signature
- Custom Send workflows
- Share users and agreements
Integrate with other products
- Acrobat Sign integrations overview
- Acrobat Sign for Salesforce
- Acrobat Sign for Microsoft
- Other Integrations
- Partner managed integrations
- How to obtain an integration key
Acrobat Sign Developer
- REST APIs
- Webhooks
Support and Troubleshooting
Overview
Obtaining a physical signature is sometimes required. It could be for legal or compliance requirements, policy positions, or simply because one or both parties are more comfortable with signatures in a physical format.
The Adobe Acrobat Sign written signature workflow supports obtaining physical signatures while ensuring proper access control, maintaining the quality and clarity of the final document, and leveraging the benefits of electronic processing and auditing.
Sending an agreement for written signatures
Sending an agreement to collect a physically written signature only requires that the sender select the Written option in the Signature Type section of the Options panel.
Note that this option is only visible when both Electronic and Written signature types are enabled for the group. Otherwise, the enabled signature type is used, and the option to select one is hidden from view.
Administrators of the account or group can set the default value to Written if the dominant signature type is anticipated to be in written form. (See Configuration Options)
Agreements send with a Written signature type require all recipients to sign in a written format.
There is no option for the sender to convert the agreement to an electronic signature workflow after the agreement is sent. Nor is there an option for the recipient to convert their signature to an electronic signature type.
For recipients, the Written signature workflow closely resembles the Electronic workflow up to the point that they have to print off the document to apply their signature:
- The recipient is notified via email with an Open and print link to the document.
- When the link is selected, the recipient is presented first with a three-step summary of the signature process:
- The recipient can fill in any form fields that are requested/required on the agreement in the electronic experience.
- When ready, the recipient clicks the Next button at the bottom of the page to advance to the download, print, and sign instructions:
- The recipient clicks the Download button to download the document (complete with any field content entered electronically).
- The recipient opens and prints the downloaded PDF.
- The recipient physically signs the printed agreement.
- The signed agreement then must be scanned back into digital form.
- Acrobat Sign accepts the file back in any normally accepted format (PDF, JPG, GIF, TIF, BMP).
- Acrobat Sign only accepts one file. If there are multiple images, they must be concatenated into one file.
- A new email is sent to the recipient requesting they upload the signed document (email subject: Please upload {Agreement Name}). A link is provided to open the Upload to submit interface.
- Recipients can also click the link in the original Open and print email to open the Upload interface:
- Clicking the Upload to submit button opens a browsing window for the recipient to find and select the signed agreement file on the local system.
- Once the file is selected, the file uploads to Acrobat Sign and the recipient is done.
- If there are subsequent recipients, the agreement progresses to the next. Otherwise, the agreement completes.
Allowing recipients to Convert their signature from the Electronic to the Written signature type
Customers that do not require an electronic signature type, and would like to overcome any customer skepticism of the electronic format, can permit recipients to convert the signature type from electronic to the written style.
When this conversion is enabled, recipients see an option to Print, sign and upload in the Options menu on the e-sign page.
Note that in multi-recipient agreements, once a recipient converts their signature type to the written style, all form fields in the agreement will be removed. Subsequent signers will not have form fields to populate, except their signature fields which populate at the bottom of the page as a signature block field.
Best Practices and Considerations
Accounts that have Users in Multiple Groups enabled are strongly encouraged to identify their workflows that require a written signature and isolate them in their own group. This allows greater application of default values that limit the number of configurable options on the Send page, streamlining the sending process and avoiding configuration errors.
If you enable written signatures through any options, you should consider enabling Upload a Signed Document in the event that a recipient mails the document back to you.
Configuration
Availability:
Creating agreements requesting a written signature is available for enterprise license plans only through the Allowed signature types controls.
Team and individual licensed customers can enable the Allow signers to print, place written signatures, and upload the agreement back to Acrobat Sign instead of e-signing it option to permit written signatures to be created by the recipient.
There are three related settings that should be considered when configuring written signature options:
Allow the Written signature type for senders
To allow your senders to configure agreements with a written signature type:
- Navigate to Account Settings > Send Settings
- Scroll down to Allowed Signature Types
- Check the option to Allow senders to send documents for Written signature
- Click Save to commit the change
Define the Written signature type as the default for new agreements
If the default signature type is defined as Written, all new agreements created in the group are configured for a written signature.
If the Electronic signature option is also enabled, the sender can change the signature type when configuring the agreement.
If only one signature type is enabled for the group, then the option to select a signature type is hidden on the Send page. Both options must be enabled for the option to be exposed and selectable for senders.
Enable recipients to convert to a Written signature
The option to allow recipients to convert to a written signature is a useful tool if you encounter signer skepticism of the electronic signature process.
- Navigate to Account Settings > Signature Preferences.
- Scroll down to Additional Settings.
- Check the option to Allow signers to print, place written signatures, and upload the agreement back to Acrobat Sign instead of e-signing it.
- Save to commit the change.
The option to allow recipients to convert to a written signature type is not dependent on the option to allow written signatures when sending new agreements.
Enable Written signatures when Limited Document Visibility is enabled
If you are using Limited Document Visibility (LDV) workflows, and you need to accommodate the option for written signature types, you must explicitly enable Written signatures within the scope of LDV.
If you do not, the option to send agreements with a Written signature type is hidden on the Send page and can not be configured by the sender.
- Navigate to Account Settings > Global Settings (Group Settings when configured at the group level).
- Scroll down to Limited Document Visibility.
- Check the option to Allow sending for written signature. Recipients will always see all the pages when required to use written signature
- Save to commit the change.
As the setting asserts, any agreement sent using both Limited Document Visibility and the Written signature type ignores the LDV workflow and presents the entire document for the recipient to view.