History of Development…

Queen City Computer Press, Inc., the original developer of personal signature software, began experimenting with ways to develop high quality digital renderings of handwritten signatures in 1991. While creating digital graphics by scanning handwritten signatures was the obvious starting point, the challenge was to create signature graphics that, when printed, would look exactly like the original handwritten signatures from which they were derived. To meet this criterion, they would need to print smoothly — that is, without the jagged lines that occurred when printing signatures’ curves. While it was possible to achieve this, most computer users at that time had neither the hardware nor the software required to do so. What follows is the history of development that lead to the most modern “handwritten signature” font software — today’s SoftSign™ Personal Signature Fonts.

First Generation: MacSignature — graphic files

To create software versions of handwritten signatures that would print smoothly, we began tracing scans of signatures to create vector graphics in EPS (encapsulated PostScript) format. However, printing them required a combination of software (such as Adobe Illustrator) and a PostScript printer. In 1991, most computer users had neither, so delivering signature software that would print signatures smoothly remained a challenge.

There was, nevertheless, a small window of opportunity — at least for Macintosh users. Some were beginning to buy PostScript LaserWriter printers or use PostScript emulation software, which enabled even dot matrix ImageWriter printers to achieve some smoothing of printed curves. Still, many Macintosh users did not have a vector graphics application, the other requirement.

We found, however, that is was possible to print signatures smoothly (with PostScript printers or PostScript emulation) without a vector graphics application using Apple’s PICT graphic file format — by adding a layer of signatures’ PostScript code to PICT files’ native bit map image information. We called it “MacSignature” and delivered it (in this special PICT–with–embedded–PostScript format) as a Macintosh Scrapbook file loaded with one or more signatures.

Second Generation: SoftSign™ Personal Signature Fonts — PostScript Type 1 fonts

MacSignature graphics did print signatures smoothly, but they had two serious limitations: (1) they required a Macintosh computer in a world beginning to run mainly on Windows and (2) pasting them into documents added significantly to their file size. Our solution was to introduce signature software as PostScript Type 1 fonts, which could be developed (separately) for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms and added virtually no weight to file size when used to place signatures in documents. We called it “SoftSign™ Personal Signature Fonts” and the font format had two bonus features: (1) typing signatures with SoftSign™ was more convenient than pasting them as graphics and (2) signatures could be any color available for fonts.

Third Generation: SoftSign™ Personal Signature Fonts — TrueType fonts

While these early SoftSign™ PostScript Type 1 fonts printed signatures smoothly, there were three problems: (1) they required a PostScript printer or a software PostScript font interpreter, such as ATM (Adobe Type Manager), (2) they did not display signatures smoothly on screen displays (monitors) without a software PostScript font interpreter and (3) they were difficult for Windows and DOS users to install on their computers.

Fortunately, Apple and Microsoft then teamed up to co–develop and release the TrueType font format in 1992 for use with Windows 3.1 and Apple’s TrueType INIT for Macintosh OS 6. We immediately started developing SoftSign™ Personal Signature Fonts in TrueType format, since TrueType fonts do not require a PostScript printer, display signatures smoothly on screen displays and are easy to install.

Today, after many years of experience developing handwritten signature software, we offer only the highest quality third generation SoftSign™ Personal Signature Fonts. We continue to build on our tradition of innovation by constantly improving SoftSign™ to keep apace with new technologies as they become available and addressing SoftSign™ users’ needs and concerns:

In 2008, we introduced an unique personal signature software security feature. Certain computer applications (for example, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word) permit saving files with the fonts that are used in their documents actually embedded in them. In the case of signature fonts, those who know how can extract and misuse the embedded signatures. While we have consistently alerted SoftSign™ Personal Signature Fonts users to the potential risk of unauthorized use of their signatures and emphasized the specific precautions necessary to guard against misuse, we began delivering SoftSign™ as a set of two fonts: (1) a special non–embedding TrueType font (for signature security), in addition to (2) the standard TrueType font (which permits embedding).

In 2009, we improved the “two–font” security solution by making it possible to install both the standard and the non–embedding TrueType fonts simultaneously, rather than having to uninstall one and then install the other in order to use it. Users may now conveniently select either the SoftSign (standard) or SoftSignNE (non–embedding) TrueType font in their application programs’ font menus to achieve the level of signature security appropriate for specific documents.

SoftSign™ Personal Signature Fonts — backed by years of experience and an extensive list of satisfied users — are the best value in signature software available, at any price. Genuine SoftSign™ fonts are “the real thing.”