Verify a signed document
Every completed SignEnvoy document is delivered as a sealed PDF. The seal is a cryptographic signature embedded in the file itself, so anyone can check it with a standard PDF reader. No SignEnvoy account is needed.
What the seal proves
When everyone has signed, SignEnvoy flattens the document, appends a Certificate of Completion as the last page, and applies a digital seal with a trusted timestamp. From then on, the file carries its own evidence:
- The document has not been altered since it was completed.
- When it was completed, attested by an independent timestamp.
- Who signed, and when, on the Certificate of Completion.
Check it in Adobe Acrobat
- Open the sealed PDF in Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader.
- Open the Signatures panel (the pen icon, or View, then Show/Hide, then Navigation panes, then Signatures).
- Acrobat reports whether the document has been modified since the signature was applied. "The document has not been modified" is the statement that matters.
- Expand the signature entry to see the signing time from the embedded timestamp.
During our beta the sealing certificate is self-issued, so Acrobat may show the signer's identity as unknown while still confirming the document is unmodified. A publicly trusted certificate is planned before general availability; documents sealed today remain verifiable either way.
The Certificate of Completion
The last page of a sealed PDF is a Certificate of Completion: a permanent record of who signed, when, and the evidence recorded at each step. It shows a reference number you can quote to support, the document's SHA-256 fingerprints (one for the signed pages as they were when the seal was applied, and one for the file as it was uploaded, before any signatures), and the event history: sent, opened, signed, completed, each with its time in UTC. A fingerprint identifies exact file contents, so either one can confirm you are holding the same bytes. The certificate says the same thing the signing screens said at the time, and it stays inside the file permanently.
Questions about a specific document? Ask the sender first: they hold the full record. For anything else, support@signenvoy.com.