Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

gitlab.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 191 posts

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#71

Post by aclimatt »

Ha! My co-worker made one of these for the same reason. Some places still require "wet" signatures, and some people (us) like to stick it to bureaucracy and prove that they can't tell the difference.

For a one-liner, if you use any tool to generate a realistic version of your signature, or do what I do and actually scan a version of your signature once, and then have that as a PNG that you can drop on any PDF of your liking, here's a line to make it look nice and "scanned":

  convert "$1" -alpha Off -density 150 -colorspace gray -blur 0.5x0.5 -rotate 0.4 -level 40%,60% "scanned-$1"
Or for even more noise and poor quality:

  convert "$1" -colorspace gray \( +clone -blur 0x1 \) +swap -compose divide -composite -linear-stretch 5%x0% -rotate 1.5 scanned-$1.pdf

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#72

Post by minikites »

zo1 wrote: post #38
toomuchtodo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Digital signatures also have legal status in the US. Until society catches up and uses cryptographic primitives provided by a national ID smart card (such that Estonia has) for authorizing intents, this is a satisfactory method to make document execution less painful. This project is already doing the easy part (“place pretty signature picture here”). Depending on your jurisdiction and their tolerance, you could also…

All the more baffling why some countries are moving away from national identification and other digital signing initiatives to prove identity. E.g. the UK that introduced and then subsequently dismantled a national ID card and database (apparently it was a "privacy" issue for the government to have a record of citizens?). Imagine this, a first world country, living in the dark ages essentially when it comes to identi…

Many people in the USA believe a "national ID" card is the work of actual Satan:

https://countdown.org/en/entries/features/national-id-cards-...

>These ID cards are, however, preparing the way. The more people get used to some new government regulation, restriction, or provision, the more they tolerate it and eventually just learn to live with it. What may at first seem unthinkable and raise howls of protest, later becomes accepted by a few, then many, then most. And that’s how the Antichrist and his agents will capitalize on these compulsory ID cards to prepare the world for what’s next.

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#73

Post by NelsonMinar »

mikehollinger wrote: post #9

Mac’s pdf viewer Preview has a signature capture feature built in that’s pretty slick. I use it all the time and haven’t encountered an objection. Tbh I’d wonder why you need to fuzz up and fake scan the image. If someone’s requiring that the doc be “signed in ink” or some such, more power to you!

Schwab (the bank in the US) started rejecting my signatures, on the basis that several documents I submitted had identical signature images. I worked around that by making a new signature, but you could imagine them escalating to also complaining about the fact it was not wet ink.

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#74

Post by detaro »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #73
mikehollinger wrote: post #9

Mac’s pdf viewer Preview has a signature capture feature built in that’s pretty slick. I use it all the time and haven’t encountered an objection. Tbh I’d wonder why you need to fuzz up and fake scan the image. If someone’s requiring that the doc be “signed in ink” or some such, more power to you!

Schwab (the bank in the US) started rejecting my signatures, on the basis that several documents I submitted had identical signature images. I worked around that by making a new signature, but you could imagine them escalating to also complaining about the fact it was not wet ink.

Interesting, but makes sense they check documents for that.

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#75

Post by jobseeker990 »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #6

I don't get the magical power of a signature at all. Everybody can write my name under a document. This project basically allows you to forge your own signature. Is it still legally binding? Do these rules even remember the original intent?

That I can tell you in just one word ... tradition!

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#76

Post by Xylakant »

recursive wrote: post #60
cgrand-net wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bank used to reject scans but accept faxes... bureaucratic reasons.

I don't know directly, but I've heard that there are special laws regarding fraud via fax. Even though fax has no technical protection, it may have legal ones, that might give the counterparty some recourse if things went bad.

In Germany, a fax is legally considered an original copy, a scan/print is not, despite a fax often being a scan that’s then transmitted via fax protocols. Law hasn’t caught up with technology yet in that area.

You also get a confirmation from the recipient when using fax.

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#77

Post by wayoutthere »

cgrand-net wrote: post #39
jonchang wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the link: "For bureaucratic reasons, a colleague of mine had to print, sign, scan and send by email a high number of pages. To save trees, ink, time, and to stick it to the bureaucrats, I wrote this script." So yes, it does seem like there are situations where a "digital" signature is insufficient.

My bank used to reject scans but accept faxes... bureaucratic reasons.

Sounds like their document management system was tied to a fax line and they didn't want to bother upgrading. IT departments at banks have like, zero budget.

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#78

Post by detaro »

Xylakant wrote: post #76
recursive wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know directly, but I've heard that there are special laws regarding fraud via fax. Even though fax has no technical protection, it may have legal ones, that might give the counterparty some recourse if things went bad.

In Germany, a fax is legally considered an original copy, a scan/print is not, despite a fax often being a scan that’s then transmitted via fax protocols. Law hasn’t caught up with technology yet in that area. You also get a confirmation from the recipient when using fax.

All the while we actually have a pretty good law about digital signatures since basically forever, but ~nobody supports those. (and they missed the chance of using the new ID cards to establish them more widely, which was really stupid)

Re: Show HN: FalsiScan – Make it look like a PDF has been hand signed and scanned

#79

Post by jeffhuys »

SamBam wrote: post #63
mikehollinger wrote: post #9

Mac’s pdf viewer Preview has a signature capture feature built in that’s pretty slick. I use it all the time and haven’t encountered an objection. Tbh I’d wonder why you need to fuzz up and fake scan the image. If someone’s requiring that the doc be “signed in ink” or some such, more power to you!

I can't for the life of me understand why the only valid ways to save a signature image for Preview is (1) your computer's camera, and (2) scrawling on the touch pad. I have a previously-scanned signature that I'd like to re-use. I'd love to simply import the file. Instead I have to print it out and then hold it in front of the camera, trying to get it aligned. It's madness. Is it supposed to be more secure for some…

Can't you just drop a .png on there? I think that works and adds it to the library. But I might recall that from somewhere else.
Post reply on HN