Re: PDF Signature Fields

[Andreas Schneider <aksdb@gmx.de>]

Very good point(s).

Just for more reference:
We use such forms heavily in-house, sometimes with a multi-stage 
approach.
Example: the employee fills out his details, etc., and signs that part. 
The fields he had to fill are now locked (but saved, ofcourse ;-)). That 
PDF is now sent to his or her boss, who fills out the organisational 
details, and signs that part. Finally the PDF goes to HR or whoever who 
gives the final signature. Since all employees have signature cards 
(chips with PKCS signatures on them) the whole process get's safe, 
accountable and paper-free. In the past stuff like this required 
printing, hand-signing, scanning, sending, printing-again, ... you get 
the idea.
These forms are currently handcrafted using Acrobat.

I will analyse the resulting PDF streams, try to match that against the 
PDF spec and what the eforms-package does.
If that lines up, I'll provide the necessary details here.

Thank you Hans and Alan! :-)


Am 2016-03-09 16:39, schrieb Alan BRASLAU:
> One has to be EXTREMELY careful with these "features".
> 
> Currently, there are so-called PDF forms, but they are far from fully
> functional. I suspect that the specifications are not clear and are not
> respected in any case.
> 
> I will give a concrete example: The American Tax agency, IRS, provides
> a large number of PDF forms that can be filled out, for they LOVE 
> forms.
> One can use Acrobat (Reader or Pro) and one can even fill them out 
> using
> evince. Yeah! However, whereas the forms filled-out using evince can be
> saved and re-edited, printed, etc., opening these filled-out forms in
> Acrobat come out blank. (Luckily I was able to provide my accountant
> with *printed*, filled-in copies, both paper and PDF.)
> 
> Other examples are forms that can ONLY be read using the latest and
> greatest Acrobat. The situation is problematic, and I know of at least
> one government agency that has finally turned towards a web-based
> reporting method as they had received multiple complaints and even
> legal challenges on their Adobe/PDF only reporting method used
> previously.
> 
> This can explain Hans' reticence towards reverse engineering in absence
> of clear, published specifications that are indeed respected.
> 
> Alan

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