Adding a signature on an online job application

Question

Nowadays many job applications are sent in digital form as PDF. We use of course LaTeX to create such. Usually you add a cover letter to your CV and credentials. If you sent this as print-out by classic mail you sign this letter (at least in Germany), but what (and how) do you do for an online application?

I would say either:

1. leave it empty
2. add your name in the usual font as normal text
3. add your real signature as scanned image
4. add your name in a special font so that it look more like a signature (but you can still see that it isn't a real one)

I'm planning to go with the last method and I'm looking for suitable fonts for it which I can use with PDFLaTeX (XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX answers are fine too, but will be taken as non-competitive). I would also be happy to get some style guidelines if I should not got with an other method (with a rationale to avoid subjective opinions).

---

I already had a look at Good Style of Creating a Signature all within LaTeX which is similar but still too different. I don't need or want any rule and the shown font in the accepted answer are looking too real.

Answer 1

Here is a play-by-play of how one can do it using potrace. It is similar to autotrace and provides a command line functionality/interface.

1. Download potrace. It is available for virtually every distribution out there.
2. Unpack it.

3. Provide a signature in (say) BMP high resolution format (click to enlarge and see the quality):

   

4. Store this file signature.bmp in your potrace folder.

5. Execute from the command line:

   >potrace signature.bmp -b PDF -o signature.pdf
   

   to create a PDF of signature.bmp. Alternatively, just executing

   >potrace signature.bmp
   

   would yield signature.eps that can be converted using epstopdfsignature.eps. This uses the default potrace settings/options and produces as output (click to enlarge and see the quality):

   

   Other tracing options are also available. See the potrace usage page for details on the type of options you can specify.

6. Include it in your document...

   

   \documentclass{article}
   \usepackage{graphicx}% http://ctan.org/pkg/graphicx
   \setlength{\parindent}{0pt}% Remove paragraph indent
   \begin{document}
   \hspace*{0.5\linewidth}
   \begin{minipage}{0.4\linewidth}
   Random Institute \par
   Random City 1000 \par
   Randomia \par
   \today
   \end{minipage}
   
   To whom it may concern: \par \bigskip
   
   Hire me, it'll be worth your while. \par \bigskip
   
   Sincerely, \par \medskip
   
   \includegraphics[height=1.5\baselineskip]{signature} \par
   Random Randofsky \par
   Randomville
   \end{document}
   

potrace also forms part of Inkscape's trace bitmap functionality, allowing you to use it in a GUI environment as well.

Answer 2

^{I’m not sure if this is an answer or a comment …}

In my opinion your number 4 is the worst solution—sorry. In my eyes this looks like “Oh he likes a real signature but isn’t able to scan/include it” or “Why not set the whole document in Comic Sans” and I don’t think this creates a professional appeal.

I’d prefer to set the name only in the normal text font or adding a (vector) graphic of your handwritten and scanned signature.

Answer 3

I am not sure what you mean by "online application", but if you mean a letter you are sending as an attachment to an email, the answer is, it depends.

If for example you are referring to an informal letter you sending to colleagues inviting them to attend a conference or a presentation then I think it is best to send it without a formal signature, but having a signature block, which is similar to that you use to sign your emails.

    Martin Scharrer
    Chief Engineer
    TeX and Co. 

If you are sending a letter representing some form of official correspondence, you should sign it, scan the full signed letter and then email it as an attachment. A signature represents the authenticity of the letter. You are confirming that the letter has been send by you. Even better to then hand deliver or post the original.

Now for a letter signed with a font this in my opinion deserves the same fate to direct marketing letters. They are impersonal and look and feel fake and both destined to death in a recycle bin.

Answer 4

This is what I once did. I signed a piece of white paper then scanned it and by using Inkscape and Potrace, I traced bitmaps making it a vector graphic, then converted it to PDF as an image and finally included it in my LaTeX document.

Answer 5

I go with option 3, but to reduce the impact of unauthorized use, I have a 3 different images. I have one image I use for banking and other things that I am confident about the security of. This image matches my typical signature in real life. I have another I use exclusively for signing forms for students. This one has my full first name, unlike my real life signature, has no middle initial, and my degree after my name. The third is one I use for correspondence (e.g., cover letters) and official university forms. It has my full first name, my middle initial, but no degree. Signatures 2 and 3 are also intentionally written differently from my natural hand writing. The differences in "names" lets me easily identify which one I am looking at.