A digital signature or ID is more commonly known as a digital certificate. To digitally sign a PDF document, you must have a current (not expired) digital certificate. Digital certificates are typically issued by a certificate authority (CA), which is a trusted third-party entity that issues digital certificates for use by other parties. There are many commercial third-party certificate authorities from which you can either purchase a digital certificate. Many institutions, governments, and corporations can also issue their own certificates.
A digital certificate is necessary for a digital signature because it provides the public key that can be used to validate the private key that is associated with a digital signature. Digital certificates make it possible for digital signatures to be used as a way to authenticate digital information.
Though you can create a "Self-signed" certificate on your local machine this will only allow you to record & verify the state of the PDF document when the digital signature was applied but does not verify the identity of the signer. To comply with the most stringent legal and regulatory requirements you will need a digital certificate provided by a certificate authority (CA).
To obtain your certificate-based digital ID or timestamp service please find a list of international certificate authorities below, and start signing documents securely with PDF-XChange products today.
**Note this is not a complete list and a quick internet search for Digital ID Certificate Authority for your country will provide you with more options if required.
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