Two different things
An electronic signature is any mark made electronically with the intent to sign: a drawn or typed signature placed on a page, a clicked “I agree”, a name typed into a box. It is legally recognised in most jurisdictions when the parties agree to sign electronically, and its evidential weight comes from the surrounding record — who was sent what, when, from where.
A digital signature is a cryptographic operation: a hash of the document is signed with a private key, and the signature plus a certificate are embedded in the file. Any reader can verify that the bytes have not changed since signing and that the same key signed them. It says nothing by itself about intent; it proves integrity and, with a certificate from a trusted authority, identity.
What each proves
| Electronic signature (image) | Digital signature (cryptographic) | |
|---|---|---|
| Shows a human signed | Yes, visibly on the page | Only if a visible signature is also placed |
| Proves the file is unchanged since signing | No | Yes — any later edit invalidates it |
| Proves who signed | Through the surrounding evidence | Through the certificate’s issuer; self-signed proves only “the same key” |
| Proves when | Through the surrounding evidence | With an RFC 3161 trusted timestamp |
| Checked how | By looking | By any PDF reader’s signature panel, or Verify signatures |
When an electronic signature is enough
Everyday agreements between parties who know each other: leases, offer letters, consent forms, delivery notes, internal approvals. Place the signature with Sign — drawn or typed, on a real render of the page — and keep the email or message that carried the document. If the counterparty must sign too, Request signatures sends them a sealed link; they sign on their own device, and the completed file gets an audit page, a certification and a trusted timestamp automatically, which is the evidence trail electronic-signature laws describe.
When you want the digital one as well
Whenever the recipient must be able to prove the file was not altered after you signed it: quotes and invoices, delivered reports, certificates, anything that will be forwarded. Certify generates a 2048-bit RSA key in your browser — non-extractable, never leaving it — and embeds a standards-compliant detached signature; add a trusted timestamp so the moment is provable too. Readers will show the certificate as self-signed, which is honest: it proves integrity and key continuity, not identity vouched for by an authority.
When you need a certificate authority
Regulated contexts — qualified electronic signatures under eIDAS in the EU, some government filings, certain financial instruments — require a certificate issued by an accredited provider that has verified your identity, sometimes on a hardware token. That is a service you buy; no browser tool can conjure it. Bindery’s verification still reads and checks those signatures, showing the issuer and the trust status, on your device.
Verifying a signed PDF
Drop the file on Verify signatures. For each signature it recomputes the digest, verifies the CMS signature against the embedded certificate, reads signer and issuer, decodes timestamps, and — the part most tools skip — reports whether the signature covers the whole file or an earlier revision that was changed afterwards. It does not claim trust: with no certificate-authority store in the browser, it shows who issued the certificate and leaves the trust decision to you or your organisation’s reader.
A practical combination
- Fill and place a visible signature.
- Flatten so fields cannot change.
- Certify with a timestamp.
- Send by a sealed link if the content is sensitive.
Everything above happens in the browser; the document never leaves your device except sealed, by your choice, for a signature request or a handoff link.