How To Create a Digital Signature on a Mac

How to create a digital signature and fill out and sign a PDF form using Preview on a Mac. Filling out a PDF Form is a feature that was introduced in OS X Mountain Lion and also available on OS X Mavericks.

TRANSCRIPT:

In this Episode, I'll be showing how to create a digital signature and Also, How To Fill-in and Sign a PDF Form with your Digital Signature.

To create Your Digital Signature, I'll just launch Preview, then from the Preview menu bar, click Preview, then scroll and click Preferences, then click the Signatures Tab.

Now with a Black Pen and a white sheet of paper, sign your signature, then hold the signed paper in front of your Mac's Camera or external camera if you have one, make sure to align your signature on the Horizontal Blue line on the screen, then click the Accept button when done.

You will now notice your Real Digital Signature has been created...it's a good idea to take several shots just so you can choose the best to insert on your PDF Documents.

Now with the signature created we are ready to insert it on a PDF Form.

I'll just use a PDF US Tax Form W-4 for this example. Double click on the PDF file and it will open in Preview.

Once the Form is loaded, if the Toolbar is not shown, click on the icon with the Pen and box around it to show the Toolbar.

Not only can you insert your digital signature on a PDF document, you can also fill in details on a PDF Form. This is a new feature that was introduced in OS X Mountain Lion and also available in Mavericks.

By default, the Text Selection Icon is already active on the Toolbar. I'll just enter some details in the boxes as shown here. Incidentally, you can partially fill-in the PDF Form and save it to continue later.

Now with that done, it's time to insert the digital signature. Now, From the toolbar, select the Signature icon here.
You will see all Signatures that has already been created. I'll just select this one, now position the mouse cross-hair in the signature area, then press and drag the cross hair diagonally to a desired size and release when done...if you are not happy with the position or size, simply position the cross-hair inside the signature and click and hold to reposition or choose these anchor points to resize.

And that's all there is to it, creating a digital signature and filling in a PDF Document on a Mac could not be more simple.