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

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

#101
post #35

Having moved from Germany to Austria I was pleasantly surprised that they have a functional national ID system that you can use to sign PDFs with a qualified electronic signature. Within Austria, they have been accepted everywhere so far. https://www.handy-signatur.at/hs2/#!sign/single When I tried sending such a document to a German insurance company, they refused to accept it. I ended up faxing the document :/

At least in the federal state of Hesse a fax isn't considered safe: (German) https://www.heise.de/news/Datenschutzbeauftragter-Gaengiges-...

... anymore. It was seen as safe until the last old ISDN / analogue landlines were converted to VoIP ones, which was really not that long ago :D

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

#102
post #32

I really hate dealing with my printer (or any printer for that matter), so I make pretty liberal use of my drawing tablet at this point. I import the PDF into Krita, use the ballpoint pen brush, and sign. I export to PNG, then use an imagemagick script to rotate it some random number between 1-3 degrees, and add noise onto it to look like a scan. It's a pain, but it's still less annoying than dealing with a printer.

There's also this website which I've used successfully with many bureaucracies.

https://www.scanyourpdf.com/

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

#103
post #14

Preview on Mac OS can do this. You hold your signature up to the camera and then it creates an image you can add to any pdf.

Preview has to be one of the most under-appreciated apps on MacOS. It implements so much handy everyday functionality that requires third-party software on Windows. Or did, last time I used Windows (admittedly some time ago).

I love the integration with iOS as well. I was pleasantly surprised to find an option in Preview to use my iPad and the Apple Pencil for my signature. It even popped up some otherwise hidden UI on the iPad to do so.

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

#104
I use gimp for this. One layer the imported pdf, the next with my scanned signature from ... 1998? Position, scale to 1024 or so, export grayscale jpg with enough compression to create artifacts, done. The poorer quality the better, tends to make it seem more "legitimate."

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

#107
post #14

Preview on Mac OS can do this. You hold your signature up to the camera and then it creates an image you can add to any pdf.

I always use Preview to "sign" documents due to a lack of a scanner, but I've found in some cases, companies refuse to accept the document because they think it's not actually printed, signed with a pen, and then scanned... Tools like this will skew and degrade the image in a similar way to a scanner so that it fits this ridiculous requirement

Have you tried signing a piece of paper with a pen and using Preview’s signature scan feature? It creates a very realistic looking signature in my opinion.

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

#108
post #36
post #32

I really hate dealing with my printer (or any printer for that matter), so I make pretty liberal use of my drawing tablet at this point. I import the PDF into Krita, use the ballpoint pen brush, and sign. I export to PNG, then use an imagemagick script to rotate it some random number between 1-3 degrees, and add noise onto it to look like a scan. It's a pain, but it's still less annoying than dealing with a printer.

You can actually sign a PDF this way just using Preview on MacOS.

I've signed and returned almost everything requiring a signature for years this way, you can even have multiple signatures (helpful when you need spouse to sign something too...) in Preview to speed up dealing with these kind of tasks. I've never once been asked to sign it with a pen instead, even for relatively complex transactions like houses/cars.

Because Preview lets you draw the signature using the TrackPad and a finger, I've had no difficulty making a very convincing replica of my actual signature in Preview.

While the linked tool may "look" more convincing with fake photocopy marks etc, for just signatures its not been necessary to go beyond Preview for me ever. In the US so much business is conducted on paperfree platforms like DocuSign etc that I don't think many people even notice the fact the signature is digital anymore, given platforms like DocuSign do more or less the same thing.

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