Digitally Signing Documents

In the course of my business day, I frequently have to sign licensing or tax documents and e-mail them to people.

I've been looking for a paperless way to do this, and I've found a fairly easy way to do it using the GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) and OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org).

Setup:

1. Scan your actual signature and edit it in GIMP, converting the background to transparency using Colors -> Color to Alpha, and then save it as a PNG file.  You may need to rescale your signature to have it fit on documents, depending on the resolution of the original scan.
2. Download and install the OpenOffice PDF import extension: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/pdfimport

Signing:

1. Open your PDF document in OpenOffice, which should open in the Draw program.
2. Select the Insert -> Picture -> From File... menu option and select your signature image.
3. Move it into place on the document.
4. Print the document and in the Print menu, select "Save as PDF"
5. Send it via e-mail!

There's also a really good digital signing service at DocuSign (http://www.docusign.com), and we'll probably start using that once there's enough volume to make it worthwhile.