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Where does Preview store signatures?

S

Steve's Barber

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 5, 2011
773
1
For those that don't know... the new Preview App let's you add your signature to a document by asking you to hold up a piece of paper to the isight camera and snapping a pic of it. It will remember multiple signatures and let you chose one to attach to your document.

If anyone knows yet, where are these signature files stored? I have one that's edited and polished up that I'd like to use instead of one from the isight camera.
 
Mudsteam

Mudsteam

macrumors newbie
Jun 30, 2011
18
0
California
Someone please respond to this thread, I need to export my signature really badly and also have a better one to import
 
M

mrapplegate

macrumors 68030
Feb 26, 2011
2,818
8
Cincinnati, OH
Mudsteam said:
Someone please respond to this thread, I need to export my signature really badly and also have a better one to import
Click to expand...

I don't think it is accessible anywhere. I can't find it. It would defeat the purpose of having a signature if one could just swap out a different .jpg. Something tells me it is converted to another format and encrypted. The signature selection has a "padlock" icon on it. Just guessing of course.
 

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S

Steve's Barber

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 5, 2011
773
1
mrapplegate said:
It would defeat the purpose of having a signature if one could just swap out a different .jpg. Something tells me it is converted to another format and encrypted. The signature selection has a "padlock" icon on it. Just guessing of course.
Click to expand...

Well mrapplegate, that makes perfect sense. Kind of "duh" on me. Don't know why I didn't think of this.
 
S

scarnie

macrumors newbie
Apr 12, 2008
28
0
Location of stored signatures

Steve's Barber said:
For those that don't know... the new Preview App let's you add your signature to a document by asking you to hold up a piece of paper to the isight camera and snapping a pic of it. It will remember multiple signatures and let you chose one to attach to your document.

If anyone knows yet, where are these signature files stored? I have one that's edited and polished up that I'd like to use instead of one from the isight camera.
Click to expand...

As another poster indicated, they are encrypted, but I've created a post on how to transfer them to other computers. I'm sure I could decrypt them too, now that I know where the password is stored :)

Cheers,

Stu
 
pbrooks

pbrooks

macrumors regular
Jul 15, 2008
168
11
I've used Photo Booth in the past to capture my signature in the past. Just sign a piece of paper and hold it close to the built in camera on my MBP. It works quite nicely. I save the image as a .tiff file and paste it where I need it..
 
S

spidey3

macrumors regular
Jul 1, 2010
195
0
Mudsteam said:
Well, could you tell me how to decrypt them please?
Click to expand...

Uh, I understand the desire to encrypt a high-quality scanned signature for use in preview, but I am starting to wonder why you would need to decrypt one. I mean, surely you must know your own signature, and be able to reproduce it...

Spidey!!!
 
B

braintoniq

macrumors newbie
Jan 2, 2008
7
0
Boulder, CO
I've been wondering this myself, for the exact same reason as the OP: to use a polished signature I have already.

I've don't think there's a way to get Preview to store an existing sig, unfortunately.

However, there's a great solution out there, and it's free. A tiny app called FormulatePro. It's ancient (last updated in 2004), but it's still stable in Lion and Snow Leopard. And it easily allows you to add a signature to any PDF. TIP: turn your signature image file into a .png, so that the spaces around the signature and inside the loops of any letters can be removed in Photoshop. That way, the signature truly appears like a signature.
 
baryon

baryon

macrumors 68040
Oct 3, 2009
3,878
2,929
Mudsteam said:
It's just that someone I know has a PC and he wants his signature from my computer
Click to expand...

Just open a blank JPEG or PDF and "sign" it with Preview, that will modify the JPEG or PDF to contain nothing but your signature, and send that to the PC user!
 
R

rexion

macrumors newbie
Jan 23, 2008
1
0
This is old, and I apologize, but, for future Googler's, another way is to use Preview's Signature tool and then use Preview to take a Screen Shot of your signature. From there you can copy and paste it anywhere, such as a Word document, etc.
 
W

wheelyweb

macrumors newbie
Apr 3, 2013
2
0
Sydney, Australia
It's way easier than that!

You guys are all missing the obvious!, even the one who proposes killing the security of the signature encryption.

All you need is a blank sheet PDF. (Word >new doc > leave blank > Save as PDF)
  • Create blank pdf, open it in Preview
  • Sign it, scaling the sig to exactly the size you need
  • Use the Alpha tool in Preview to kill the white page
  • Save in the format you need, I recommend 300ppi PNG

That's it!
Works a charm!
 
J

jggorman

macrumors newbie
Jul 4, 2011
27
7
Where Preview stores the signatures

The signatures are stored in the following location:

/Users/YOURNAME/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preview.signatures.plist

The data is encrypted. That is all I can offer.
 
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