Most online providers aren’t much better. Who wants to go through the hassle of printing/scanning/emailing/faxing? (And that’s if you can even find a fax machine these days.) With today’s technology, adding an electronic signature to a document shouldn’t be so hard, but it’s not exactly straightforward. The presence of abnormal line directions (such as moving counter clockwise for an “o”) can make a signature more difficult to forge.If you’re in sales or business development (or even if you’re just an everyday person doing something like buying a house), you know it: trying to e-sign documents is a royal pain. Signatures that are illegible tend to be more difficult to forge than those legibleĪ signature with more line intersection and with more turning points (changes in pen direction) is more difficult to forge So what did we find out about what makes a signature hard to forge? Through the survey we found that: As they copied them we recorded their dynamic hand motion using a digitising pad, as well as their eye movements. They then had to try to copy each signature and re-valuate their opinion as well as tell us which parts of the signature they found hardest to complete.įurther we then tested 20 people in the lab as they attempted to copy two signatures. In an online survey we asked 63 people to rate how hard they thought 12 signatures would be to copy. We ran a number of experiments from surveys to eye-tracking studies. In particular we were interested to see which elements of a signature add increasing levels of difficulty – making it not only harder to be forged, but also easier for a forensic document examiner to form a strong and reliable opinion. In a recent set of studies in our lab, we closely examined the process of signature forgery with the goal to learn more about what makes a signature harder to forge. Until recently there had not been the same consideration given to examining what made signatures easier or harder to forge – information that could be useful to the average person to consider when looking at their own signature or redesigning a more robust one – as well as to the document examiner. These experts are trained in the theory and practice of forgery detection, which over the past 15 years has been bolstered by detailed scientific examination of forgers’ techniques and underpinning theory. Not obsolete: signatures still play an important role in modern life.

How to create your signature digitally