Digitially Signed PDFs not showing the signature

Question

As a Construction Administrator, I receive many PDFs with digital signatures.  When opening some of the PDFs, the sender's signature does not appear.  It only shows the signature field box.  I have found that if I use the Bluebeam Print to PDF, the sender's signature then appears.  I am curious what is causing this.

Thank you,

Ted

Dhanush Kodi Raj · Accepted Answer

Hi Ted Krush

Good one, Ted, I've seen this a few times too. Nine times out of ten it's not your end at all, it's how the signature was embedded on the sender's side. Something a lot of people don't realise, the actual signature (the cryptographic bit that gets validated) and the picture you see in that box are two completely separate things in a PDF. If whoever signed it didn't embed that visual part cleanly, Bluebeam just shows you the empty box rather than faking a graphic that was never really there. Pretty sensible behaviour when you think about it.

The Print to PDF thing makes sense once you know that. Printing forces Revu to draw something for every field on the page, so it goes and pulls the signer's name, date, reason straight from the signature data itself and builds its own version of it on the spot. That's why it suddenly shows up.

I'd just double check the Signatures panel still says it's valid, that part has nothing to do with whether the picture renders. And I wouldn't keep the Print to PDF copy as your actual record either, once you print it's flattened, so you've got a picture of a signature, not the real signed object anymore. If it keeps happening with the same people, worth a quick ask on what they're signing with. Usually traces back to their tool, not anything you're doing.

Thank You, Ted, for bringing this out