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Creating a self-signed digital ID

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Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Creating a digital ID

Creating a digital ID

To create a new signature, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Advanced > Security Settings to open the Security Settings dialog. Click Digital IDs in the left of the dialog to display your existing ID files in the upper-right frame of the dialog (Figure 1).

    security settings dialog

    Figure 1: Digital ID files, along with other types of security servers and IDs, are listed in the Security Settings dialog.

    (+) view larger

  2. To build a new signature, click Add ID on the dialog's toolbar (Figure 2). The Add Digital ID dialog opens, giving you four options: find an existing ID on your system, create a new one, configure a roaming ID to use on your computer, or look for hardware tokens such as a smart card. Click Create a Self-Signed Digital ID for use with Acrobat and then click Next at the bottom of the dialog.

    Add ID button

    Figure 2: The Add ID button is on the Security Settings dialog box's toolbar.

  3. The next dialog asks where you want to store the Digital ID. You have two choices: the default is to create a new PKCS#12 digital ID file, or you can add the Digital ID to your Windows Certificate Store (Windows). Click an option, and then click Next.
  4. In the next dialog, add the information you want to include in the certificate, such as Name, Organization Name, and E-mail Address. Choose a Key Algorithm. In the Use digital ID for menu, choose digital signatures, data encryption, or both, and then click Next.
  5. In the final pane of the dialog, click Browse to choose a storage location for the certificate, or leave the default location in the Security subfolder of the Acrobat program's installation folders so you don't lose track of your certificates. Type a password and a confirmation of the password and click Finish.

You can sparkle up the appearance of a digital ID using an image rather than using the default appearance:

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences (Acrobat > Preferences) to open the Preferences dialog, and choose Security from the Categories menu. Click New in the Digital Signatures preferences to open the Configure Signature dialog.
  2. Enter the new signature's description and information (Figure 3):
    • Type a title for the appearance—make it easier to recognize using a descriptive name.
    • Select a Configure Graphic option. You can choose to use no graphic, an image from a file, or your name. To use an image, click Imported graphic and then File to open a Select Picture dialog. Locate the file and click OK to close the dialog; click OK to close the picture's preview.
    • Specify the text options you want to display in the Configure Text section of the dialog. All options are selected by default. Any choices that are deselected aren't shown in the finished signature, such as the Reason or Date.
    • If applicable, select a text direction (not shown in the figure).

      description of signature

      Figure 3: Specify the features for the custom signature appearance.

How a digital signature works

A digital signature is composed of two parts: a public key and a private key. You use your private key to encrypt the data in a file by applying your digital signature. The public key is enclosed in a certificate that is exchanged with others in order to verify your identity or signature, or create encrypted information to share with you. Acrobat lets you use a number of keys for the same document and share the document and keys with a group.

When creating a new ID, you can choose from these options:

  • Use a PKCS#12 Digital ID file, which uses a standard format that is supported by Web browsers and most security software; the IDs have .pfx (Windows) or .p12 (Mac OS) extensions.
  • Store the signature on a signing server to allow you to use a roaming ID regardless of your location.
  • Store the certificate on a smart card or hardware token.
  • Use a Windows Certificate Store ID, which is available to other Windows applications and protected by a Windows login. This option is available only for Windows users.

Where to go from here

For more information about working with security in Acrobat 8, check out these other great tutorials:

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