In the early days of computing, which was not too long ago, there was talk of all the trees that would be saved when we eliminated our use of paper and of saving time through the efficiencies that computing technology would bring. This vision falls flat on its face when it comes to signing documents. Of course, technology does exist that allows for a completely digital process for signing documents but it is expensive and far from being accessible to the average person.
Today, people are still printing out their PDF documents, signing them with ink, and then submitting them as hard copies or scanning them and throwing away the paper copy. Shocking, isn’t it? I guess this has not been a high priority for OS architects. That leaves the solution for independent developers to implement. Currently there are a small number of apps that provide a solution and they all do it in their own unique ways. Some require that you sign in to their service and one charges as much as $15 for unlimited use. Sign It! is not necessarily the best of these apps, but it strikes a good balance between cost and usability.
When you start up Sign It!, you are prompted to open a PDF. Unlike other apps, this one can only open PDFs. Fortunately, it offers a variety of methods for importing PDFs such as through the Dropbox service or from its built-in web server. Once it opens the PDF, you can zoom and pan around the document. You tap and hold to specify where you want to insert your signature. Here it also offers a myriad of objects to insert such as a hand-drawn signature, an image file of your signature, check boxes, and there are even some nice rubber stamps such as for “CONFIDENTIAL” or “COPY.” Lastly, you can resize and rotate the objects that you insert for the most suitable placement.
Once you are satisfied with your changes you will want to retrieve your document from the app so that you can send it off. Again, you can send your document back to Dropbox, use the built-in web server to download it from a computer, or send it via e-mail.
Functionally, Sign It! does provide a complete solution, but it has some inconsistent behavior and an interface that is not intuitive enough which detracts from its solid usability and can make it unusable to those who are less patient.
Sign It! sells for $4.99.
[etRating value=“ 3.5”]
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