When you ask most Mac users what the application Preview is used for, the typical response would sound something like this: “It’s an app that allows you to quickly preview files... JPEGs, PDFs, etc”. Oh, it does that, but it does sooooo much more! I will just touch on one really cool feature in this post (and could spend the next month writing a new post every day showing you other cool features). In short, Preview is a powerful tool.
Have you ever needed to sign and return a document (PDF) that someone has sent you via email? This is a frequent occurrence for me. To accomplish this, one would probably print the file to a printer, sign it, scan it, then finally email it back to the other party. With Preview’s built-in Signature tool, that laborious process is a thing of the past!
The first thing we need to do is grab a white piece of paper and sign it in the middle (make sure to use a good quality pen). Now, we’ll want to add your signature to your library of signatures in Preview. To do this, launch Preview and go to Tools > Annotate > Signature > Manage Signatures... If this is your first signature (and I’m guessing it is), click “Create Signature...”. This will engage your built-in FaceTime camera. From here, place your signed paper in front of the camera so that the signature lines up with the blue line. When it’s in the right position, click “Accept”. You’ve now created your first signature! Here’s a sample of what it should look like:
Now that you have your signature, it’s time to put it to use. To use it, open a PDF in Preview. Next, you will want to open the makeup tools. To do this, click on the "Markup Tools" button (it looks like a toolbox) from the menu bar. Next, click the signatures button then choose the signature you want to add (you can add multiple signatures using Manage Signatures that we used before to create our signature).
To see how quick it is to add your signature, watch the video below:
