Document Signing Certificates

Code Signing is used to sign software and scripts. Document Signing is specifically used to sign PDF documents, contracts and other business documents in Adobe Acrobat and similar tools.

Yes. The certificates are on Adobe's Approved Trust List (AATL), so signatures are automatically displayed as trusted in Adobe Acrobat, Reader and other compatible PDF tools.

The certificate is typically delivered on a hardware token (USB) or via a cloud-based signing key solution. This ensures the private key never leaves the secure environment.

Yes. Anyone who opens the PDF document in Adobe Acrobat or Reader can see and verify the signature. The recipient does not need their own certificate.

New industry requirements dictate that certificates must only be used for one specific purpose (Key Usage constraints). This prevents the use of old "all-in-one" certificates that were previously used for email, Adobe signing, and login simultaneously. Furthermore, only certificates officially licensed on the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL) will work without throwing errors or warnings in Adobe software.

To meet the strict security requirements for AATL certificates, the private key must be physically secured. The key must be generated and stored on a FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (or higher) compliant hardware token (USB) or HSM (Hardware Security Module) to ensure it cannot be copied, exported, or stolen.