Signing a PDF with SES

Prerequisites

The what? and why?

Simple Electronic Signatures (SES) are advisable in contexts where high security and strict identity verification are not required. Here are some scenarios where SES is suitable:

  • Low-Risk Transactions like Routine Sales and Procurement Agreements — SES is sufficient for everyday business transactions that do not involve sensitive information.

  • Internal Documents — Signing internal company documents, such as HR forms or meeting minutes, where security is not a major concern.

  • Consumer Transactions like E-commerce Transactions — Clicking "I agree" to terms and conditions during online purchases or software installations.

  • Package Delivery Confirmation — Signing for package delivery using a digital signature pad.

  • Educational and Healthcare Settings like School Permission Slips — Signing permission slips for field trips or other school activities.

  • Health Questionnaires — Signing health forms before doctor appointments.

  • Basic Agreements — NDAs with Clients: Using SES for non-disclosure agreements with existing partners or clients.

  • Online Registrations — Signing up for services or events online.

In general, SES is ideal for situations where speed and convenience are prioritised over high security, and the legal requirements are minimal. However, if additional security or legal robustness is needed, Advanced Electronic Signatures (AES) might be more appropriate.

In Web Trust, SES is brought to you in two flavours:

  • Document Simple API: The classic SES with OTP verification.

  • Document Simple Forensic API: A patented SES implementation adding a forensic layer, making the signature stronger and less disputable. This implementation positions the Document Simple Forensic between a SES and an AES.

Creating the SES

Since we already covered the creation of an SES in another article, we would like to focus on some key creation parameters.

isForensic

To differentiate a Document Simple from a Document Simple Forensic signature, you need to specify the parameter isForensic in the creation payload. A true value (default) will trigger the creation of a Forensic SES; on the other hand, a false value will trigger the creation of a SES.

forcedSignaturePNGBase64

In some cases, it may be useful to specify the signature beforehand, instead of asking the signer for it or automatically generating it. For example, a person often needs to sign documents several times in a day; it would be useful in this case to store the graphic stroke in an image and then create the signature using it.

ignoreDownloadAll

In the signing environment, in case of multiple documents, there is a button that allows the signer to download all the documents with one click. There are some cases, though, when you may not want this; for instance, you want the signer to acknowledge one document at a time without getting out of the signing environment. If this is your case, set this parameter to true.

immediatePDFViewMobile

Even if the signing environment is fully responsive, signing from mobile is slightly different than from desktop. One of the main differences when signing one document is that you don’t see the document right away, but there is an action involved (a click/touch).

As you can see in the image above, to view the PDF, you need to click the SHOW button.

But if you set the parameter immediatePDFViewMobile to true, the PDF will open automatically as soon as the signer lands on the signing environment from a mobile device.

For more configurations and use cases, take a look at the other recepies.