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Comment by michaelmior | Hacker News Reader

> If you want this, just use MS Paint or similar tools.

Except then you need to have people install those tools and know how to use them correctly. I think eSign platforms can still provide some value here in terms of usability even if that's not the core value proposition.

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Last time we bought a house, we did basically everything on our phones, including tapping our way through the closing paperwork on one of these platforms. Easiest time by far—we’d used them for parts of other house purchases, but had never done the whole thing that way before. These sorts of platforms also take care of notifying everyone when stuff’s done, maintaining an todo list for signing, sending reminders, verifying you didn’t miss spots that need a signature or initials, and making sure everyone who needs access to the docs, has it. They’re really nice.

Anyway, if you just want to draw a signature on docs standalone with only local software and none of that other nice stuff, the good solution on a desktop OS isn’t mspaint, but Preview. Works directly on pdfs, can generate a fancy sig or let you draw your own, signatures re-usable and available in a drop down menu next time you need to sign something.

Preview is great on Mac, but does not exist on Windows. If parent uses Windows, perhaps they must resort to MSPaint (which is much worse for this purpose).

On Windows, the best way to draw on PDFs is actually Microsoft Edge. It even handles pressure sensitivity if used on a laptop with a stylus or with a graphics tablet.

And I'm not sure of the value. If an email reply saying "I agree to this" is sufficient then I'm not sure what having a skeuomorth signature adds to the process.

You often need to show the document to some kind of a third party, from a local government to your medical provider. People usually expect to get a nice PDF with that useless skeuomorth signature and put into their archive in case they will then have to show it to somebody else during audit or something. Document+signature is simply a convenient artifact. It's obviously very easy to manipulate, so the government invented this whole PKI stuff which nobody uses, as repudiation happens almost never and nobody provides validation services for the cryptography part of it.

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