Preview won't capture signature

I had the same problem, quit Preview multiple times, but finally got it to work via blind luck. I arranged a bright light above and behind the computer, but even that wouldn't work until I took my paper with sig and sort of angled it toward the light (no longer parallel to the computer) until my preview appeared, then I could move the paper back to parallel and click Accept. The eye hand coordination for this was a bit challanging, so doubt I could accomplish this with even a mild blood alchohol %, so please do try my fix only when sober.

Alas, just another item in the long list of bugs and Apple slipping on quality control. There was a time when Apple meant it just works (and I have been using Macs since the early 90s), but now Apple is the new Microsoft in my life. Constant annoyances and headaches. Surely Apple can pay the best of the best. The loser who signed off on this should be fired because he/she failed.

Sorry Apple, but if you are going to take us all to the cleaners and lock out all competition and innovation, can you at least make stuff that works again?

I know this is probably not the most popular feature but I also have the same issue.

Hi Waynefromst,

Thanks for your reply - but if it was that easy I wouldn't have a problem 🙂 It appears it works for some people but not everyone. When I put any paper with a signature up to the camera, nothing is rendered on the right. Clicking accept also does not actually do anything. The list of signatures remains empty.

I used this feature very often in 10.8 so I have a pretty good handle on how it works. It is most definitely a bug.

Denis

Spot on Valerie, (pardon the pun).

I came across the same problem this morning and took my laptop outside. Preview signature worked perfectly.

So the answer is you need a very good light source for preview to pick up the signature from the camera. Webnurse 🙂

The other thing I noticed was that the illumination of the paper has to be good, I tilt the lid of my laptop down so the ceiling lights fall onto the paper. I also suspect you need good contrast and again the illumination level helps that.

I had the exact same problem. Wouldn't preview it on the right regardless of lighting conditions, so there was nothing to Accept and save. I exited Preview completely, re-opened it from Launchpad, and now it works. The camera previewed my signature, I was able to Accept it. Not sure what "shook it loose", but give that a try.

I'm using Mavericks 10.9.1 and I just had this problem too. Very frustrating since I had to add a new signature to a document for my insurance co.

I tried over and over. Even tried deleting old signatures. Still didn't accept the new signature.

Eventually I contact Apple support. I chose to share my screen with support. This, strangely, did the trick. Downloaded the screen sharing software and connected to the support guy when he called.

Tried again and - presto! - it worked first time... I don't know if using that program resets something in your setup but I'm glad it worked.

So try that.

The bottom line is that Apple does not give the user any feedback about how this works. If you don't see a preview of your signature, then it won't capture anything when you click "Accept". The program must be able to lock on a good scan for signature and until it does, you cannot capture anything. Improving lighting and holding the signature still help. In any case, wait for the preview of your siganture to appear before clicking "Accept". This whole thread could have been avoided with 2-3 lines of code that throws up an error if the program doesn't actually capture anything.

Congrats on succeeding, I have not yet.

So far in recent times, Apple has badly or completely broken for me on OS X the following things that I used to use:

Signatures as in this thread and others.

Canon MP830 scanner OS X support

Aperture

Final Cut Studio

email (unbeleivably buggy)

Cloud password safe

Cloud storage

Parental controls

My daughter's email name

Thing is, I'm thinking this is as bad as Microsoft at its worst, which is why I originally started using OS X.

I'm having to invest back into Microsoft and Adobe products, amongst others.

Right now I'll not put new data in anything Apple unless I can easily get it back out again, cause it can so easily go away on you if you do, whenever it suites Apple.

I'm moving away from having Apple in my workflow. I can't wait months for something broken in my workflow to be fixed, or spend weeks testing out my workflow because Apple has released a new version of something.

LenTS wrote:

So far in recent times, Apple has badly or completely broken for me on OS X the following things that I used to use:

email (unbeleivably buggy)

Recent versions of Mail have had problems, but it's improved with each update. Have you tried it lately?

My daughter's email name

What do you mean by that?

deke4mama got the answer for me. It was definitely the lighting that was the problem. Going through the steps originally, everything would proceed as normal... but the signature wasn't saved for use... and Preview didn't give any error like "Image too dark... improve the lighting and try again" (which would have been oh-so-helpful!).

Re-orienting my laptop so that I could hold the paper facing the light solved the problem

Thanks everyone!

After reading this and several other threads around the web I was still tearing my hair out. Signature always showed up in the preview box but wouldn't save when I clicked "accept". Also, no signature plist file was ever created. What finally worked for me was holding down the accept button with the mouse for a couple seconds. I was just clicking too quickly. I could then create a signature even without the extra light and even with a fine point pen. Now if only my hair will grow back. Hope this helps!

This worked for me. Open Finder and Select Go >> Go to Folder.

Copy and paste the following:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.signatures.plist

Deleted the file and then try again.

Thank you - this worked.

After deleting the file - I closed down Preview. And then opened it up again to start from scratch.

It worked and could capture more than 1 signature.

No bright light required.

I was about to give up until I tried this. I had clicked Accept with the signature visible on Preview at least 15 times!

Thanks again

Hi - I had the same issue and it seemed to come down to lighting. I put my torch on on my phone and shone it towards the signature, away from the camera, wiggled the paper around and eventually it worked.