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What is an online signature?
According to the U.S. Federal ESIGN ACT, an online signature is defined as "an electronic sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record."
In easier terms: An online signature is your virtual handwritten signature. You may use it to sign online documents the same way you'd use a physical signature.
Online signatures make electronic documents valid by confirming your identity. It's like ticking a box saying you agree to a contract's terms and conditions.
Software like SignHouse helps you create your online signature for free.
How to create an online signature
You can create an online signature for free with SignHouse. Draw, type, or upload a picture of your handwritten signature and digitalize it with our app.
Any signature created with us is 100% free and legally binding. There are many uses to it, and one of the most helpful uses is signing PDF documents with ease.
With a SignHouse-made electronic signature, you and your team or clients can sign documents electronically, without having to bring everyone in the same room.
Since you made it so far, here are some more facts about online signatures.
Legality of online signatures
Online signatures are 100% legal in most states in the world. For instance, the EU's eIDAS Regulation confirms that online signatures are legal and safe.
According to the eIDAS Regulation, an electronic signature is defined as "data in electronic form which is attached to or logically associated with other data in electronic form and which is used by the signatory to sign."
At SignHouse, our online signatures are 100% legally binding all over the world.
Here's a list of some countries where our online signatures are valid:
- United Kingdom;
- Ireland;
- United States;
- Australia;
- Canada;
- New Zealand;
- Singapore;
- India.
In case you're wondering, online signatures have the same power as physical ones. This means you can sign documents online or offline with the same power.
You can use the online signature with SignHouse for Legal Documents.
Wondering whether our signatures are legal? Check out our help section that's answering this exact question.
Also have a look at all the acts we're compliant with!
Personalities & Online Signatures
The way you write your signature can say a lot about your personality. In this section, we're looking at what your signature says about you.
You can know a lot about someone only by looking at their signature. Now that you've made your online signature, let's have fun trying to understand you:
- Legible signature: If your cursive signature is clear, it suggests that you are a confident and organized person;
- Unclear signature: Messy signatures suggest the opposite of a legible one - they show that somebody may be disorganized. Alternatively, a messy signature suggests somebody is rather careless about their signature's looks.
- Big signature: You have lots of confidence and trust in yourself;
- Small signature: You're shier or more introverted, or you like to be quiet.
- Detailed signature: A fancy signature with lots of details shows that you're creative and expressive;
- Simple signature: These always suggest minimalism and a straightforward and person who likes to get work done quickly;
- Straight-line signature: You're practical, rational, and you work efficiently.
- Curve-line signature: You're an expressive personality that likes creativity (similar to the the detailed signature type).
These are the most popular 'categories' for personalities based on signatures. Did you find yourself in any of these?
Fun fact: It's 100% normal to have a mixed signature and to find yourself in more than one bracket. Humans are very complex!
Mixed types of signatures
Maybe your signature shows more of these personality types — in the end, we're humans and we can't always fall into just one category (or personality trait).
As you may have seen above, popular figures always have different signatures. Some of them are just their initials, and others are their full names.
Wondering if a signature has to be your full name? We've answered that.
The short answer is: no, it doesn't have to be. You can choose whatever you want to represent your name for both your wet signature and its electronic version.
Lastly, let's answer one of the most popular questions on the topic of eSignatures.
How to choose your online signature
You have to consider a few factors when choosing the right signature maker. For instance, it has to be a legal tool that gives you lots of ways to create a signature, but it also has to be affordable and offer other features.
Here is a list of features to look at when choosing your online signature tool:
- Legality: Your online signature is supposed to be legal and secure. Make sure that your provider works with legally binding signatures, like SignHouse.
- Ease of use: Signing online documents has to be easy and quick.
- Customizing: Having many features and ways to customize your online signature is crucial (e.g. custom fonts and colours).
- Affordable: Obviously, you want the best pricing and value. It's good not to cheap out on your online signature in order to check all the other boxes.
- Integrations: These are very important especially for companies and teams that need to work with other CRM apps. Sign easier with integrations.
- Accessibility: Sometimes you need to sign documents on your computer, and other times you need to sign docs on your phone. Make sure it works on both!
- Audit trail: If you work with other people, you want to know when they opened and signed a document with their online signature.
These are 7 of the most important checks when looking for the right online signature solution and/or provider.
As you can see, we went a bit into detail on both the online signatures themselves, as well as into the checks that the provider should tick.
If all the 7 boxes are checked, you're in the clear. You're definitely going to have the best online signature and be prepared for anything.
You'll find all of these checks at SignHouse, where you can even create your online signature in a few different ways. Choose the best one for your needs!
All handwritten signature generators have these basic methods at your disposal:
- Upload: Write down your signature on a piece of paper, capture it with your phone or another device, and then upload it in our system.
- Draw: Whether it's with a pen, a mouse, a touchpad, or your touchscreen, drawing your signature is a great option for the best online signature.
- Type: Use handwritten and San Serif fonts to type out your online signature and add it directly on your documents.
That's all you need to know about online signatures.
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