Technical Support Note 14

Using Sign-It! with Fax Software

Question:

Can Sign-It! be used to add my signature to a fax document?

Answer:

A great use of Sign-It! is to add your signature to electronic faxes/cover sheets. The best way is to create the entire fax document in a word processing program such as MS Word or WordPerfect. These applications provide tremendous flexibility in accepting graphic files and providing powerful editing capabilities.

Fax software applications (e.g. Delrina’s WinFax v. 7) typically do not provide enough flexibility when adding your signature to their own cover sheets or fax editor. For example, WinFax will allow you to add your signature (via the Sign-It! signature server) to a cover page template. However the signature must be placed in a fixed position and when you add the cover sheet text message, the signature remains in its originally placed position. This is why it is best to use a wordprocessing program for your cover sheet.

Other fax software packages basically treat the fax document as a bitmap (raster) image and do not allow adding an OLE graphic object (Sign-It! signature server) or a TrueType font. A couple things to try are:

  1. If the fax software allows adding text and the ability to change its font, then use your signature font directly. This can be done by typing a "A" (this is the character position of your signature in your signature font). Select the "A" and change the font to your signature font (the font name you chose and it is listed on the Sign-It! install floppy). Typically, the point size of the signature should be changed to 36-48 points for a typical signature.
  2. If the fax software allows placing a bitmap graphic file (.bmp file), then we will need to capture your signature into a bitmap file. This can be done by placing your signature into a word processing program (Write or WordPad will work) using the Sign-It signature server. Select your signature and choose COPY from the appropriate menu. Bring up Paint (or any bitmap editor) and choose PASTE in the bitmap editor. This signature will appear in the bitmap editor. Save the signature to a .bmp file. Insert the .bmp file into your fax document. The COPY and PASTE operation is converting the TrueType signature into a raster image that can be saved by the bitmap editor application.