How to Create Digital Signatures?

As this world becomes more and more hyper-connected, businesses seek faster, cheaper and more efficient ways to execute contracts. This is where electronic and digital signatures come in and are a big help. By means of eSignature service providers, you can digitally verify documents right from your home, office or even while stuck in traffic. This article sheds more light on digital signing and its benefits.

What is a digital signature?

A digital signature is a way to validate and authenticate a digital document. In many countries, it is considered to be just as legally binding as a handwritten one. Digital signatures are commonly used in e-commerce, finance and software distributions. In 2018 the market for digital signature was valued at $879.6 M with an upward tendency in the future. The growth is considered to be driven by businesses’ goals to eliminate fraud, improve data integrity, and employ technological innovations.

What is the difference between a digital and electronic signature?

Electronic and digital signatures are often mixed up by users. Although they have much in common, still, they are two different concepts. Digital signatures are authorized by institutions that provide digital certificates that validate the documents and prove the authenticity of the singer. Without digital certificates, signers are unable to sign a document digitally. While on the other hand, electronic signatures don’t require a digital certificate and have a lower level of security. However, they are simpler to use and still legally-binding. You’ll find that countries in Europe and Asia prefer digital signatures over electronic signatures.

What are the advantages of a digital signature?

Replacing handwritten signatures with the digital ones comes with many advantages. The latter are faster and more efficient methods for signing. Apart from that, they are more cost-effective. It’s not uncommon now for larger companies to even require digital signatures in order to more securely execute forms with confidential information.

Use digital signatures to:

create more security;
be globally compliant in data protection;
establish authentic signing sessions;
long-term legality and validity.

The benefits listed above are core reasons more and more businesses choose to use them to optimize workflows. Introduce fewer delays, improved efficiency, cost-savings and more secure and convenient data storage. Digital signatures have become a very attractive solution for document verification all over the world.

How to create a digital signature

To get a digital signature, you need to refer to or visit the authority that will authenticate the certificate that verifies a signer to a signature. The process of getting a certificate varies by state and country, but there are plenty of online resources that can help you. Some even offer a certificate and signature for free.

Here is how you can generate a digital signature:

Choose which authority you want to use in order to obtain your certificate.
Fill out a digital signature application form and wait until it is approved.
Select an eSignature platform and upload your digital signature to it for use.

The majority of services follow a public key infrastructure (PKI) protocol. It enables a provider to create two keys — public and private. A signer always uses the private key when signing a document. The signature is also marked with a timestamp and embeds to the doc. If the doc is altered after the key (digital signature) was embedded, it loses its validity.

How to create a digital signature with signNow

signNow is a robust eSignature tool for generating, negotiating and signing agreements. Its user-friendly and simple interface makes it attractive to users. In addition to being simple-to-use, it is known for being an industry leader in security policy. eSigning with signNow is a fast, easy and consistent process. You can use signNow to sign both electronically and digitally.

Here is how to digitally sign documents with signNow:

Open the Get a Digital ID dialog box.
Go for Create your own digital ID.
Type in the requested information to include in your digital signature.
Click Create.

signNow follows high-security standards and complies with both US and EU legislation. Being an award-winning service provider from 2016 through 2020, it’s been employed by thousands of companies, including TechData, Amgen and Balfour Beatty.

By signNow's Team

May 13, 2020

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