Save your signature and initials
Save your signature and initials
Redrawing your signature with a mouse every time you sign something is the worst part of e-signing. You only have to do it once.
Where they live
Signatures in the account menu. The page has two sections:
- Signatures — used for signature fields
- Initials — used for initials fields
You can keep more than one of each. Most people need one; some keep a formal full-name version and a quick scrawl.
Adding one
Click Add signature or Add initials and draw in the pad. Draw it at a comfortable size — the mark is scaled to fit whatever field it lands in, so a large, confident signature reproduces better than a cramped one.
The first mark of each type you add automatically becomes your default.
Setting a default
Each section shows which mark is the Default. Any other mark has a Set as default action.
The default is what gets applied first when you sign, so make it the one you use most. Others stay available to pick.
Using them
When you open a document to sign, signature and initials fields are filled from your saved marks — you confirm rather than draw. See Sign documents electronically.
If you have not saved anything yet, you draw at that moment and can keep the result. Either way you end up with a saved mark; the only question is whether you set it up before or during.
Signed before you had an account?
Saved marks are keyed to your email address, not to an account. If you signed a document as a guest — no my-id.ca account — and later register with that same email, the signature you drew then is waiting for you under Signatures.
Managing them
- Delete a mark you no longer want. If it was the default, set another.
- Replace rather than accumulate. Five near-identical scrawls make the picker slower, not better.
Is a drawn signature legally valid?
For most everyday agreements in Canada, yes — electronic signatures are recognised under federal and provincial electronic-commerce legislation, and my-id.ca records the surrounding evidence: who signed, from where, after verifying a one-time code sent to their email, with the result cryptographically sealed.
Some document types are excluded — my-id.ca does not support wills, codicils, powers of attorney, or land-registration and title documents. For anything consequential, check the requirements with whoever is asking for the signature.
Related
Frequently asked questions
- Do I have to save a signature in advance?
- No. You can draw one at the moment you sign a document, and choose to keep it. Saving in advance just makes the first signing faster.
- Why are initials stored separately?
- Because documents ask for them separately — a signature on the last page and initials on every other page. Keeping them apart means the right mark goes in the right box.
- I drew a signature before I had an account. Where did it go?
- Saved marks are keyed to your email address, so if you sign up with the same address the signature you drew as a guest shows up under Signatures.