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Apply PDF certificates to documents

  • 7 min.

What is the purpose of PDF certificates?

How are PDF certificates integrated in Document Output?

Document Output enables your organization to automatically apply certificates to PDF documents, ensuring their integrity is protected. When your customers or vendors receive PDFs, an intact and signed certificate shows that your document was not tampered with.

You can choose to apply either or both:

  • eSeal (electronic seal) certificates
  • PDF certificates with the PKCS#12 format

Warning

Document Output cannot send a document with both a PDF password and a PDF certificate (an eSeal certificate and/or a PDF certificate with the PKCS#12 format).

Scenario

Ester is enhancing the security of documents that Cronus sends to customers by adding PDF certificates.

She needs to:

  • Activate the features in Document Output
  • Set up eSeal certificates for a group of customers
  • Set up a PDF certificate with PKCS#12 format for the sales quotes email template

Choosing between eSeal certificates and other PDF certificates

There are several key differences between the two types of PDF certificates, and you can apply one or both of the PDF certificate types for any document sent by Document Output.

eSeal certificatesPDF certificates with PKCS#12 format
Unique certificate applied to each PDFSame certificate applied to multiple PDFs
Issued by accredited third-party providers, after completing a Know Your Customer (KYC) verification processCan be easily generated by a wide range of suppliers
Certification applied by encryption service at the point of sending documentCertification applied from locally stored file
Applied to all PDFs sent for selected customersApplied through an email template

Important

In the European Union, eSeals are governed by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, commonly known as the eIDAS Regulation. Some countries mandate the use of eSeals in certain situations.

Typically, eSeal certificate providers charge a service fee and a fee per eSeal certificate issued. During activation of this feature in Document Output, you select the third-party supplier to use so that you can start to automatically integrate eSeals with your outgoing PDF documents.

Warning

Each eSeal is applied at the point of sending the document, ensuring that the PDF is sent in an unmodified state. This means that you are not able to preview the eSeal signature before you send emails.

Activate the PDF certificate features in Document Output

PDF certificates are part of the Document Output Security module, which can be added to your billed subscription.

  1. Navigate to the Continia Solution Management page.
  2. Use the Manage Modules action, and follow the steps to enable and then activate the Security module if you have not already done so.
  3. Then, navigate to the Continia Feature Management page.
  4. Enable one or both of the PDF Certificate Signing and the eSeal Document features.

When you enable the eSeal Document feature, you will also need to complete the eSeal Service Setup guide, including the details for your eSeal service provider:

  • Service endpoint
  • API key
  • Seal ID

Apply eSeal certificates to customers

You can enable eSeals for individual customers or for all of your customers at the same time.

To enable for an individual customer:

  1. Navigate to Customers, and open a relevant Customer Card.
  2. From the FactBox, select Document Output > Customer Actions.
  3. Inside the Document Output Customer Card, on the General FastTab, select Seal PDF Documents.

To enable for all customers in one action:

  1. Navigate to Document Output Customer Cards.
  2. Use the Update Customers action.
  3. In the CDO Update Customer Setup, select Seal PDF Documents.

Apply PDF certificates to an email template

You can apply PDF sign certificates with the PKCS#12 format (with filename extensions .PFX or .P12) to any email template in Document Output.

In your selected email template page:

  1. Import the certificate through the Sign PDF option in the action bar. If you have set up a PDF password on the same email template, you need to remove this before importing the PDF sign certificate.
  2. On the General FastTab, make sure that you have selected Show more to see all available settings.
  3. Under Sign PDF, the imported certificate shows at PDF Sign File Name.
  4. Optionally, enter details in the fields for PDF Sign Reason and PDF Sign Location. These details will show to the PDF recipient as part of the PDF sign certificate when viewed in a PDF viewer, such as Adobe Acrobat.

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