Digital, electronic, or just a picture?
These three terms get used as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and the gap between them is exactly where document fraud lives.
A scanned or drawn signature
An image of handwriting, pasted onto a page. You sign paper and scan it, or draw with a mouse or finger.
What it proves: nothing. An image can be lifted from any document you have ever signed and dropped onto any other. It carries no link to the document, no record of when it was applied, and no way for a reader to check anything at all. If the document is altered afterwards, the image sits there looking exactly as convincing as before.
It is fine for low-stakes internal paperwork where everyone involved trusts each other and nobody is going to contest anything. It is not evidence.
An electronic signature
The broad legal category: any electronic indication of intent to agree. Clicking "I accept", typing your name into a form, an OTP confirmation, a signature captured on a delivery driver's tablet.
Its strength depends entirely on the audit trail the provider keeps around it — IP address, timestamp, email verification, consent records. The signature itself may prove nothing; the surrounding evidence does the work. This is the model most commercial e-signature platforms use, and it holds up in practice largely because the provider can produce that trail if challenged.
Aadhaar eSign in India sits at the strong end of this spectrum: an OTP against your Aadhaar record triggers generation of a genuine one-time certificate, so you end up with a real cryptographic signature even though the experience feels like a simple e-signature.
A digital signature
The narrow technical meaning: a cryptographic operation using a private key, over the exact bytes of the document.
Two properties come out of it that nothing above can offer:
- Tamper evidence. The signature covers a hash of the document. Change one character and the hash changes, the signature no longer matches, and any reader that checks will say so. There is no way to alter a signed document and keep the signature intact.
- Verifiable origin. The certificate travels inside the file and names its issuer. Anyone can follow that chain to a Certifying Authority without contacting you.
Nobody needs to trust the sender, the tool, or the platform. The document verifies itself. This is why it is the form required for statutory filings.
Side by side
| Scanned image | E-signature | Digital signature | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detects tampering | No | Depends on provider | Yes |
| Proves who signed | No | Via audit trail | Via certificate |
| Verifiable offline | — | No | Yes |
| Needs a certificate | No | Usually not | Yes |
| Accepted for statutory filing | No | Rarely | Yes |
How to tell which one you are looking at
Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If it is genuinely digitally signed, a bar appears at the top and a Signature Panel button becomes available. If nothing appears, whatever is drawn on the page is an image, however official it looks.
Browsers and phone viewers do not perform this check, so a document that looks signed in Chrome may be nothing of the sort. If a document matters, verify it in Acrobat.
Which do you actually need?
- Statutory filings, tenders, tax, company law: a digital signature from a CCA-licensed CA, usually on a hardware token. Nothing else is accepted.
- Contracts and agreements between parties: a digital signature if either side may later dispute it; a reputable e-signature platform otherwise.
- Internal approvals, memos, acknowledgements: a scanned mark is usually fine, as long as nobody mistakes it for something stronger.
The failure mode worth avoiding is using the weakest form while everyone assumes it is the strongest — a picture of a signature in a box that says "Digitally signed by", passed around as if it were verifiable.
Common questions
- Is a scanned signature legally valid in India?
- It may count as an electronic signature under the IT Act depending on the circumstances, but it is weak evidence and easy to challenge, because there is nothing to examine. For anything contested, a certificate-based digital signature is far stronger.
- Is a digital signature the same as an e-signature?
- No. Electronic signature is the broad legal category for any electronic indication of intent. Digital signature is one specific technical method within it, using cryptographic keys and a certificate.
- How can I tell if a PDF is really digitally signed?
- Open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader and look for the signature bar and Signature Panel button. If neither appears, the marking on the page is just an image.
- Can someone copy my scanned signature from a document?
- Yes, easily. Any image can be cropped out and reused on another document. This is the main reason not to use scanned signatures on anything that matters.