[~Candy~]

I have some tax forms that need to be emailed. They are in .pdf format and I need to sign and date them in order to email them back. I could fax them, but we don't want to deal with the quality issues.

I have Acrobat Professional, and the only way of signing I can see is digital, but we need real signatures on them. I have my signature scanned into the computer and I can sign word documents that way, it seems to me that I've done this in the past with a different program, but I have people breathing down my neck and must get this done ASAP.

[Boingo]

I am not sure if this is what you mean, but here is a way to "stamp" your real signature onto the files.
Making Transparent PDF Signature Stamps

[~Candy~]

Thanks Boingo, that may be the ticket. I've printed the page out and will see what I can do.

I've signed one and 'recreated' another .pdf file using my scanner (which will be my backup plan in case all else fails ). I have one of those scanners by HP that allows dust to get under the glass with no way of cleaning it --- but, it's a plan at least.

[~Candy~]

Well, I poured through that link and did some Googling, and I think that program is just over my head for the time being. It's almost Greek to me.....I don't do a lot with software, so I get frustrated with things that aren't obvious REALLY fast

Scanning them after they are signed will suit my needs for the time being. Maybe when I buy more patience I'll deal with it again

[~Candy~]

By the way, I'm going to move this over to business apps to see if I can get more eyes on it

[WendyM]

Do you have full control over the pdf document or is it protected? You should be able to select your signature from Word (or wherever it currently is) and copy and paste it as an image into the pdf doc. Let me know if you're still interested and I'll play with it a little. Oh, and what kind of file is your sig in now?

[~Candy~]

Hey Wendy

As far as I can see, the document is wide open, it's from my CPA.

I have my sig in the form of an .rtf as well as a .bmp file.

I can copy and paste it, but it will go over the sig line and make it semi-disappear as I can't figure out a way to get the signature 'transparent' so that it looks like it was actually signed on the document itself.

I've done this in the past, I just can't remember what programs and/or how I did it, the signature pasted seamlessly over the sig line, with the y breaking thru/over the line, but the line was still intact.

[WendyM]

Hi Candy!
Oh yeah ... I didn't think of the y. I know about those! When I get a sec I'll play with it and see if I come up with something, if somebody doesn't beat me to it.

[WendyM]

Hmmm. Ok. Well. I don't know how helpful this is, but I opened a scanned signature in Microsoft Photo Editor and then went to Tools and chose Set Transparent Color. I copied it from there and pasted into Word and it was, in fact, transparent. I just couldn't get it into the pdf from there, but maybe you'll have more luck. Also, it wouldn't let me save as a jpg or bmp because it said it would lose the transparency, so I had to save it as a gif. Hope something about that is useful. If not ... ummm ... sorry?

[~Candy~]

Ok, guys, more ideas, more ideas

I have my problem solved with the scanning to .pdf, but I HATE TO BE DEFEATED

[joed202902]

Candy,

You could convert the pdf into a word document with a pdf-word conversion program, paste your digital signature into the word doc and then re-print (save it) as a pdf with a pdf print driver. There is also OCR if you're more adventurous where you can scna a document, convert with OCR and then again use a pdf print driver.

One more way......take the filled out form with a signature and fax it to your computer using a fax program.

[cwwozniak]

Can you just add a horizontal line of the correct thickness to the scanned signature file and then paste that into the PDF file?

One other method I can think of would be to use a drawing program to trace your scanned signature and convert it into a series of filled paths. Then delete the original scanned image, group all of the paths and save the file as a PDF. Hopefully, you should then just be able to copy the paths with nothing between them from one PDF file to another.

[letchworth]

"IRS is the mother of invention"

Since pdf files are printable-- have you tried printing out the file--
Sign the printout---
re-scan the signed paper- creating an image.
Transfer that to your word processor like: OpenOffice or Word
Convert the output back to pdf (OpenOffice has this built-in, but you could add a free program like "pdfCREATOR" to convert the output from Word back into a pdf file to ship back to your accountant.

That won't fix your scanner problem- but the document would have a uniform appearance.

Here's the link for pdfCREATOR---- very easy to use (it becomes a "printer" choice-- instead of "printing" to your default printer- choose pdfCREATOR- the document is saved as a .pdf file).
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

[~Candy~]

Thanks all for the replies.

letchworth, that is along the lines of what I've decided to do.....sign the IRS pdf form, and then scan it back into Adobe and save it as .pdf. It works and it's simple.

I'd still like to be able to ultimately do it with the paste, just in case I find myself with no scanner available I like to have multiple back up plans

[WendyM]

This is beyond rigged, but I just copied a sig into a Word doc and positioned it where the signature would go on the pdf. Then I saved the Word doc as pdf and went into the original pdf and set the signature doc as a background for that one page. It's not elegant, but it appears to work.