Acrobat X Customization and SignatureLogo.pdf

[Guest]

Tried following the Customization tool help file to create a SignatureLogo.pdf file to include with the distribution of Acrobat Pro X using the Files and Folders section of the customization tool.

Obviously I either misread or misunderstood the process for getting this to work.

Can somebody provide a step by step of how to include your own company's signature logo file in a setup disk distribution using the customization wizard?

Thanks,

WA

[Joel_Geraci]

Can you elaborate on exactly what it is you're trying to do? It sounds like you want to distribute a digital certificate with an appearance. Is that correct?

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply Joel...

I'm putting together a binary distribution of Acrobat X Pro.

I have done this many times before (versions 6, 7, 8, 9) as we have upgraded over the years.

I watched the videos about using the customization tool and wanted to insert the custom SignatureLogo.pdf that our organization uses (replaces the Adobe logo behind your digital signature).

I created the SignatureLogo.pdf and have been using that on my own system for over a year. I just wanted to include that customized digital signature logo in the distribution so it would be the default for all of our employees.

In the customization tool help file, under "Files and Folders" at the bottom of the page I found this text;

"3.   Copy other needed files to a custom or existing directory. For example, expand the Destination Computer directory ProgramFileFolder\Adobe\Acrobat <application version>\Acrobat\ and create a new folder called Security. Some common files that may be distributed this way include:

l   SignatureLogo.pdf: To create a watermark or logo on each employee signature, create the logo and manually copy the file to the Documents and Settings Directory under their username.

l   PKCS#11 drivers: If you use smart cards, you can distribute drivers that end users can import via the Security Settings Console.

l   Custom security handlers: If you have developed a custom handler for signing or document security, install it in the application’s plugin directory.

Note:   The tuned installer will copy these files to the matching location."

So I was under the impression that if I created the "Security" folder as described above and then dragged my SignatureLogo.pdf file into that folder in the "Files and Folders" section of the customization tool structure that the customized signature logo file would get installed on any system that we ran the setup on.

This did not happen. So I'm doing something wrong.

Any help you can be will be appreciated.

Thanks,

WA

[Joel_Geraci]

Ok got it. In addition to putting the files in the right place, you'll also need to add the corresponding registry entries for the distributed copy of Acrobat to know to use the files. The easiest way to do that would be to search the registry for the filename of your PDF and then use the registry editor in the CW to replicate that.

[Steven_Madwin]

Hi WA,

Although my friend and colleague Joel is correct that in many instances you do need to add the corresponding registry key, in this case you there is no reg key. I think the problem may lie in the location you are using (and ultimately in the example we are providing). Yes, the SignatureLogo.pdf file will reside in the Security folder, but the Security folder doesn't go into the Program Files folder, but rather into the users space.

I'm far from an expert in the use of the Installation Wizard, which is to say I've probably walked passed someone who used it at some point in my life. You need to get the Security folder with the SignatureLogo.pdf file to install into C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\<ver>\Security (for Vista\Win 7). What I imagine you would be looking to create is something akin to %APPDATA%\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0\Security, or whatever it takes to get the folder (and ultimately the file) into the correct location.

I hope this helps,

Steve

[Guest]

While SignatureLogo.pdf "should" work if it's not then you are doing this for the entire deployment because you want everyone to have the company logo on their digital signature?  Just use the following file instead:

Appearances.acrodata: Stores signature appearances. Unless there is a shared company appearance, do not use this file.

It goes in the same place as the one that Steven pointed out on Windows 7.

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\<ver>\Security (for Vista\Win 7

You will need to create it on a test system first and then deploy it in your cusomized installation package.

It can actually hold more than one appearance too.

SZ

[charis_dancer]

This sounds very similar to what my organization is trying to do. My present role involves redesigning a large number of our internal paper forms in LiveCycle Designer ES2. My question concerns the appearance of digital signatures. Bear in mind that I am a new user and much of what you describe is unfamiliar to me at this point.

In several examples I’ve seen of digital signatures, the stylized Adobe “triangle” appears as a watermark. My organization would like employees’ digital signatures to feature our company logo as the watermark.

How can this be accomplished, and are there any limitations on:

- opacity
- image type (vector versus raster)
- filesize
- maximum image dimensions
- colour space (CMYK versus RGB)

If one of you can direct me to some easy to understand (read: newbie friendly) step-by-step, how-to documentation that explains how we can accomplish this, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

[EnterpriseHelp]

Steve and Sabian describe the correct method above. See also http://www.adobe.com/devnet-docs/acrobatetk/tools/DigSig/appearances.html#changing-the-watermark.

There are no restrictions. The watermark is simply an image converted to PDF.

hth,

Ben

[charis_dancer]

Hi, Ben.

Many thanks for your reply.

Can you tell me whether SignatureLogo.pdf must forcibly reside on each user's/employee's computer or whether it is possible to store it in a readily accessible location on a shared network drive/intranet? I ask because, as a large organization in the midst of a rebranding initiative, our visual identity is incredibly important to us, and we'd like to ensure, wherever possible, consistency of, and control over, our corporate brand. (Geesh, that's a lot of commas!)

Thanks again.

[EnterpriseHelp]

On the computer. The watermark is embedded in PDF. . . retrieving that dynamically on the fly from a server is not possible. Maybe there's something in the SDK that would help you. . . not sure.

Ben

[charis_dancer]

Here's the process we envision:

1. Make logotype available on our internal network and tell users where to find it.
2. Users can then each access this location and download the artwork file to their desktop.
3. They can then each follow the process to create a new appearance for their digital signature, as outlined in Steve's and Sabian's process, above.
4. Customized digital signatures then reside as SignatureLogo.pdf on the workstations/computers our employees use every day.
5. Individual employees can access and use their digital signature stored locally as they need to.

If I understand correctly, the first step is not possible? Sorry; I want to be absolutely clear, as I will be expected to document these processes for other staff in a comprehensive how-to guide to digital forms and digital signatures.

[EnterpriseHelp]

Of course it's possible for users to download the file and use it. You can also distribute via the installer as described above.

[charis_dancer]

That clarifies. I apologize for your trouble, Ben, and thank you once again for your help and timely responses.

Kind regards.

[Steven_Madwin]

Hi Ben,

I'm not so sure that the SignatureLogo.pdf file has to be on the user's computer. I think if you were to modify the user's computer to change the %APPDATA% environment setting to point to the server it would work.

Hi Charis,

Yes you can control the look of the signature background and yes Acrobat can handle vector art (in fact it will look better because it scales). However you design the logo is how it will look in Acrobat. You don't have to worry about the dimensions because Acrobat will fit it to the signature form field.

Steve

[charis_dancer]

Hi, Steve.

Changing the %APPDATA% environment setting, while it may work, would not be feasible, given we have over 3,000 employees.

To this point, I've created the PDF file per your procedure and saved it in the Security folder, as described. However, in my form, the watermark appears not where the Adobe trefoil would normally be, but in place of where <username> should appear in the signature field once the form is signed. This is not the desired result: we'd like the user's common name to appear over the watermark.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Steven_Madwin]

Although it's not part of the discussion, just to expand a bit, what you see on the page is not the digital signature, but rather a graphical representation of the signature. The signature itself is a blob of data embedded in the PDF file that you never see unless you open the file with a text editor.

That said, this graphical representation can be thought of as having two layers, a background layer and a foreground layer. The background layer contains just one thing and that's either the Acrobat trefoil logo or whatever is in the SignatureLogo.pdf file. The trefoil only appears in lieu of a SignatureLogo.pdf file. If the SignatureLogo.pdf file is present it always takes precedence over the trefoil. More about the background in awhile.

The foreground layer can be thought of having two half's. The left half can be a graphic, although if no graphic file has been selected then Acrobat (and when I say Acrobat I really mean both Acrobat and Reader) puts in textual representation of the signer's common name. The right half of the foreground layer is the textual representation of the certificate data.

As the user you have control of all three of these elements (the one background layer and the two halves of the foreground). As we've already discussed the background layer is controlled by the contents of the Signature Logo file. Control of the two sides of the foreground layer is controlled by the Custom Signature Appearance controls in the Preferences dialog.

Back to the SignatureLogo.pdf file. You start with an image, and with a little luck for Adobe you used Illustrator and Photoshop to create. Even if you didn't use an Adobe product for your graphic creation you hopefully have a vector art representation of your logo and you probably had to reduce the opacity on it to at least 50% in order for it to not overwhelm the signature foreground. Acrobat will try to center up the image in the background layer, but if you have a chunk of whitespace on the right side of the image that you put into the Signature Logo file, then the logo itself will be pushed to the left, but you can't tell because the whitespace just blends into the page. Without seeing the source file it's hard for me to give you a definitive answers, but my suggestion is to look for white space on the right side of the image and make sure that it was cropped off in an image editing program (Photoshop ).

To control what you see in the foreground you need to get into the Preferences via the Edit > Preferences menu item. It's slightly different on the Mac, but you said that you have Designer and Designer doesn't ship with the Mac version of Acrobat so I'll stick to Windows for now. From the Preferences dialog select Security from the Categories list box (again, you have Designer and Designer doesn't ship with version 11 so I know you have an earlier version of Acrobat, but for those of you using version 11 select Signatures from the list box and then click the Creation & Appearance More button ). Click the New button and then add a title. At this point you cal play with the options to get the signature the way you want it to look. Once you select the Imported graphic radio button you'll have a better idea what I mean when I said the foreground is divided into two halves. Eventually you will a set of options that provides the appearance that you are striving for.

Steve