Guides: what the proof of a signature actually says

Set it once, forget the banner

Acrobat shows an unacceptable signature banner? Install the Signattio trust root once

Adobe Acrobat checks signatures against the certificate lists it ships with. The Signattio signing root is not on those lists (that is correct — it is ours), so Acrobat asks before trusting it. This playbook installs the root once, after which every Signattio-signed document validates cleanly in the reading tools you already use.

Read next

Evidence, stated plainly

What a PAdES B-T signature actually proves (and what it does not)

You hear that a document was signed with a PAdES B-T signature. What, precisely, does that let you assert — and on what is the evidence still silent?

Read next

eIDAS, stated plainly

Qualified vs advanced electronic signature: what the law actually says

“Advanced” and “qualified” describe electronic signatures in the same regulation. Which one you have changes what you can assert about it — and neither category is what most summary pages say.

Read next

Verification, step by step

How to verify a signed PDF — and read the verdict

A signed PDF is not a promise. It is a file that carries its own evidence, and anyone can re-compute that evidence without trusting the tool that produced the document.

Read next

The timestamp, opened up

What a qualified timestamp is: RFC 3161 and eIDAS article 42

The strongest single element of the evidence pack is the smallest: a short token certifying that a digest existed before a stated time. Here is what is inside it — and which of its properties the law grades.

Read next

Signing, end to end

How to sign a PDF online, step by step

Signing a PDF online is four moves: load the final document, name the people who must sign, let each one verify themselves, and receive a sealed, verifiable file back. Every move is short; the point of this guide is to show what each one actually changes.

Read next

Remote by design

How to sign a contract remotely — no printer, no account

Distance should not have to change evidence. You send a contract for signature online; the counterparty opens a link on their phone, proves their identity with a one-time code, signs — and the file comes back sealed, with the whole verification trail attached to it.

Read next

Digital, for real

How to make a digital signature (and how digital differs from electronic)

“Digital signature” is a technical phrase people use loosely. The technical meaning: a hash of the document, signed with a private key, anchored by a certificate. The legal floor — 'electronic signature' — is broader. Knowing which one you need is half the question.

Read next

Paper versus proof

Wet signature vs electronic signature: what actually changes

A 'wet signature' is ink on paper. Put it next to an electronic one, and the differences are not about legality — both carry legal force under the eIDAS framework when conditions are met — but about what each can prove, at what cost, and about the few places where law still insists on ink or on a certificate.

Read next

Hiring

Signing an employment contract electronically — what the law allows

Yes: an employment contract can be concluded electronically, and the signing of it does not lose validity for that reason. What matters is the same as on paper — the document reaches the candidate as the version they were offered, the attachments are in fact included, and the evidence of who consented is verifiable.

Read next

Hiring

HR onboarding paperwork: the e-signature stack

HR onboarding is paperwork: offer, contract, policy acknowledgment, and bank or ID confirmations. All of it is ordinary private documentation, so under Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, article 25, none of it can be dismissed for being electronic — and it all fits one envelope flow.

Read next

Sales

Quotes, authorisations and work orders: who signs what, and how

The paperwork that moves a business is not the big contract; the business moves on quotes, authorisations and work orders. Because these are ordinary private documents, Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, article 25(1), rules out denying them legal effect for being electronic — and in Portugal, Decreto-Lei n.º 12/2021 article 3(5) treats them like any private document in evidence.

Read next

Real estate

Real-estate agency paperwork, signed electronically — and where ink stays

An agency runs on signing: the mandate (mediação), viewings and leads, tenancy paperwork, promissory contracts. All of these are ordinary private contracts and can be concluded electronically — the boundary in real estate is not the sector as such, but specific acts — the deed.

Read next