Hook66
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Viewing digitally signed PDF

Hi,

Here's a sample of a digitally signed PDF :
http://blogs.adobe.com/security/SampleSignedPDFDocument.pdf

Viewing it with Acrobat Reader on a Mac shows it's signed by John B Harris, with a picture of his manual signature on the left, and the digital signature info on the right.

But on the iPad, the content of the PDF stays simply blank.

Is there any viewer on the iPad that can visualize such digital signatures ?
(it would be very nice if you can check with the one you use yourself)

Do you think Apple intends to add the functionnality to iOS in the future ? (it's not working on the iPhone with iOS 4 either)

Windows XP

Posted on Jul 20, 2010 11:45 PM

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Hook66

Q: Viewing digitally signed PDF

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Hook66,

    Hook66 Hook66 Jul 23, 2010 9:28 AM in response to Hook66
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 23, 2010 9:28 AM in response to Hook66
    Hi,

    I now have tested a number of apps, amongst which GoodReader, ReaddleDocs, EasyPDF, Stanza, PRFReader Pro, iRead PDF, File Viewer, not one of them can see the digital signature.

    Does every single of them in fact use the embedded PDF reader to display PDF ? Some touts how they have optimised the display speed, are able to open encrypted PDF, etc.

  • by Dan White,

    Dan White Dan White Jul 23, 2010 4:54 PM in response to Hook66
    Level 6 (9,451 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 23, 2010 4:54 PM in response to Hook66
    Did you try iBooks ? It does PDF's now.

  • by msschreiner,

    msschreiner msschreiner Aug 10, 2010 12:09 PM in response to Hook66
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 10, 2010 12:09 PM in response to Hook66
    The same problem happens when opening an Adobe Acrobat digitally signed document in Preview. Preview doesn't display the signature. This is a major issue.

  • by Eric Barger,

    Eric Barger Eric Barger Nov 6, 2010 8:45 PM in response to msschreiner
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Nov 6, 2010 8:45 PM in response to msschreiner
    Yes, this is now an issue for me. I now have to start digitally signing PDF files and it seems Acrobat is the only solution on the Mac and I have yet to find one even to just view a sig on the iPad. I really don't want to purchase Acrobat just for that feature but it looks like I may have too.

  • by vslavik,

    vslavik vslavik Mar 20, 2013 7:09 AM in response to Eric Barger
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Mar 20, 2013 7:09 AM in response to Eric Barger

    If you'll pardon my shameless plug, I may be of some assistance: I got tired of waiting for some usable signing solution, so I wrote my own and it's available in the Mac App Store now: http://pdfsignet.com (you'll note it doesn't do visual signatures yet, only the cryptographic ones, but they'll be supported in a future update).

     

    “I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.  <Edited by Host>”

     

    On the iOS side, check out the "Sign Master" app; I didn't use it myself, so I don't know how good it is, but well, at least it exists.

  • by a brody,

    a brody a brody Oct 17, 2016 3:01 PM in response to vslavik
    Level 9 (66,889 points)
    Classic Mac OS
    Oct 17, 2016 3:01 PM in response to vslavik

    Adobe Acrobat Reader (free) now supports digitally signed PDFs on the iPad.