How to Create a Hand Drawn Signature

This guide provides the best practices for creating, scanning, and editing your hand-drawn signature and initials to ensure they look professional and function correctly within the Stavvy platform.

Step 1: Prepare Your Signature and Initials

The quality of the original signing is crucial for a clean digital image.

• Paper: Use a plain, white sheet of paper (like standard printer paper). Avoid lined, colored, or textured paper or backgrounds.
• Ink: Use a fine-tip Sharpie or felt-tip pen with black ink. Note: If your state regulations require signing in blue, use a blue felt-tip pen instead.
• Signing: Sign your full signature and initials separately, making sure they are drawn in a straight line. Leave some space between them for easy scanning/cropping later.

Why a fine-tip pen? A clean, dark line scans better and looks clearer when digitized.

Step 2: Scan and Separate the Images

You need two distinct digital images: one for your signature and one for your initials.

Option A: Using a Scanner

• Scan the paper using a high-quality scanner.

Option B: Using Your Smartphone

• Take a high-resolution photo of the signature and initials.

• Ensure the photo is taken in bright, even lighting (no shadows) and is directly overhead to avoid distortion.

• Tip: Many modern phone camera apps (e.g., iPhone Notes, Google Drive) have a "document scan" feature that automatically adjusts for perspective and contrast, which often yields the best results.

• Save: Save the signature and initials as two separate image files (e.g., as JPG or PNG).

Step 3: Edit and Format the Images 🖼️

This is the most critical step to ensure your signature fits correctly and looks professional. You will need image editing software for this step.

Editing Instructions:

1. Crop Tightly: Crop both images to remove as much white space as possible, leaving only a thin margin around the actual signature/initials. Ensure the line of the signature remains perfectly straight.
2. Set Dimensions: Resize the images to the suggested pixel dimensions listed in the table above.
3. Make Background Transparent: This is essential! Change the white background to transparent. This ensures only the black ink shows when placed over documents in Stavvy.
4. Save: Save both final images as PNG files.

Step 4: Upload to Stavvy

Once you have your two final PNG files with transparent backgrounds:

1. Log in to the Stavvy platform.
2. Navigate to your Profile (usually found under Settings or your user icon).
3. Locate the section for uploading your signature and initials.
4. Upload the respective files for your Signature and Initials.

Your hand-drawn signature is now ready to use for electronic signing!

⚠️ Troubleshooting Image Editing

If you are unfamiliar with image editing software, you have a few options:

• Contact IT: We recommend reaching out to your organization's IT Team for assistance with image manipulation. They will typically have the necessary software and expertise.
• Online Tool: You can use a free, browser-based tool like LunaPic for basic cropping and converting the background to transparent. Search online for "remove white background from image" for alternative tools.
• Get Support: If you have tried the options above and still require support, please email our Stavvy Support Team at support@stavvy.com.