Creating your own "digital" signature :)

Sometimes, I need to send out letters or fill in online forms that requires my signature on them. Some of these documents are actually made for the 'manual' world, where we need to print them out first, and then send it to the recipient in a stamped envelope. Sometimes however, the recipient also accepts them through email. For me, if I can email, I will email lah! However, many a times, we print the document since it requires our sign.

Nowadays, I prefer not to print out the docs. Instead, if they require my signature, I'd just insert a digital copy of my own tandatangan :) This however, should not be confused with an actual digital signature, whose definition you can get from Wikipedia.

Wokeh... Since I have work to do... I won't be doing it. Instead, I will be blogging about how I make my "digital" signature :) Hahahaha!!! (Ish, penyakit PhD ni melarat sampai masuk kerja la pulak...).

Firstly... take a picture of your signature. The one below, of course, is not mine. It belongs to the fictional character Mat Dollah bin Jaapar (no relations and not to be confused with Mohd. Farid Jaafar).

Taken using my Sony Ericsson Elm... bad lighting so tak terang...

Make sure you have sufficient contrast between the text and the background. Ideally, use a black pen lah to sign. But red is also ok. Just don't use white ink or liquid paper, since that's just 'tidak pandai'. 

Second step!!! Go to the online photo editor website suggested by my good friend Dr (to be) Muhd. Nabil Ahmad Zawawi (I'm sure he's scratching his head now since I am not using the surname Tajudeen). The website's name is PIXLR.COM, and I must say, it's flash-based photo editor is so so nice to use. Below is a screen shot of the editor's interface. Ada macam Photoshop jugak ye dok? Of course it doesn't have the same full fledged functionality of Photoshop, but it gets simple photo editing jobs done quite well :)

Interface of the pixlr.com digital image editor

Okes... Now, a bit of technical stuff. But no worries laah, pasal senang je pon benda ni. Firstly, go to the drop down menu (at the top) and choose "Adjustments". Select "Brightness & Contrast", and set the brightness and contrast accordingly. I did this because the original Mat Dollah signature was a bit too dark. So I lit it up a bit :) The result is as shown in the pic. below. Of course, if your image is already ok, you can skip this step. I snapped the Mat Dollah signature using a low end camera phone. Jadi, tu pasal kureng cantik :)

Mat Dollah's signature, with Brightness & Contrast adjusted

Now that we've got a nicer looking signature, all we need to do is to change it to black and white :) Here, select the "Adjustment" menu again, but now, choose the "Threshold" command. Thresholding here basically means to binarize (or make into black and white) an image. A slider will come out, and binarize accordingly lah :) For this example, my final binarization value is 194...

Selecting the threshold command

Threshold value selected at 194

Please threshold accordingly and make sure you don't get too much of those black areas around ure signature. This is because we want to make the next and final step easiest! :D All right, to finish things up... we need to use the "CROP" tool on the floating toolbar (on the left hand side). This bar is the one that has the whole bunch of icons on it.

Ok, firstly select the "CROP" tool, then drag the mouse pointer so that it forms a rectangular selection around the signature area. After you've done that, click on the "CROP" tool again (yes, the same one on the toolbar), and click "Yes" on the dialogue box that follows. VOILA!!!! Your very own digital signature :D

Setting up to crop

Confirm crop

Cropped :)

Wokeh! SAVE it somewhere on your PC.... Now, all you have to do is insert the signature into your document :) The example below is an MSWord document (of course it's a fake letter la). Just make sure that the "TEXT WRAPPING" is set to "In Front of Text" so that the image is always positioned in front (or over) any text. Also, set the image's background (i.e the color white) to be transparent :D This should be under "RECOLOR", and choose "Set Transparent Color"... then click on the white background. Drag the signature to the dotted lines... and again, VOILA!!! You "digitally" signed document :) Normally I'd turn the document into a PDF first, then baru hantar ke pihak2 yg berkenaan :) Somehow, that feels more secure :)

Applying the "digital" signature

Okes. I hope this post has been of some benefit :D TQ for reading iya? Assalaam aleykom WBT and a very good day to all...