A guide to signing the PDF contract electronically

Image result for pdfA slightly different blog post today – a quick guide to some easy ways to sign PDFs without printing and scanning them.

When you book me in, I’ll send a full legally binding contract to ensure that everything is agreed and in writing. With the technological advances in smartphones and tablets, it’s now very quick and easy to sign the contract on your device and email it back to me.

I encourage everyone to email me the contract where possible – paper copies via post are still fine, but when I receive a paper copy I’ll then digitise it and destroy the paper copy – so it makes sense just to receive it digitally in the first place! With the advent of GDPR, it’s harder now to store paper securely in line with the regulations – much easier to keep it in secure digital format.

Method 1 – Apple devices such as iPhone and iPad

The latest version of iOS makes it very simple to sign PDFs directly from your phone or tablet.

Open the PDF contract attached from your email and tap the ‘markup’ button (looks like a pen).

This allows you to write directly onto the PDF. Zoom in to the signature strip on page 2 and sign.

 


When you’ve signed on the line, tap ‘Done’ then tap ‘Reply All’.

This will attach the signed PDF into a new email which you can send back to me.

Done!

 

 

Method 2 – Adobe Fill & Sign App

This is one I haven’t tried personally, but I’ve been told this is an easy way of filling in PDFs directly from your phone or tablet. It’s available on both Apple and Android devices:

Use the sign documents apphttps://acrobat.adobe.com/uk/en/mobile/fill-sign-pdfs.html

 

 

 

Laptops, Chromebooks and other devices…

A little more complicated, so I’ll defer to people who know what they’re talking about!

https://www.howtogeek.com/164668/how-to-electronically-sign-documents-without-printing-and-scanning-them/

 

 

 

Printing… scanning… and paper copies

If you don’t fancy trying the electronic method, you can of course just print the contract and sign it by hand. Once signed, you can either scan the signature page or take a photo of it (as long as it’s clear and legible), then return to me via email.

And finally… you could even post the contract to me! Remember the days when we used pen, paper and the post box?! Ha ha! That’s still absolutely fine. As mentioned in the intro, I do destroy paper copies after I’ve digitised them and stored them securely using online cloud storage. This is due to the new GDPR regulations – it’s very important to store personal data in a responsible way, and paper copies with name and addresses can easily get into the wrong hands.

 

 

published 13th March 2019