Hand-Drawn Signatures in Firma.dev: Choice for Signers, Control for Developers

Most signers never think about how they sign. They open the document, see a field, pick a style from a dropdown, and click confirm. For a lot of workflows, that's exactly right. But for some, a typed signature just isn't what's needed, and Firma.dev now gives you both options: signers can draw their actual signature, and developers can enforce it when the workflow requires it.

Drawing a Signature on Any Device

When a signer opens their signing link, the signature modal now includes a draw option alongside the existing typed styles. They use a finger on mobile, a stylus on tablet, or a mouse on desktop, and draw directly on a canvas. Firma.dev captures the stroke data, automatically crops whitespace, and embeds the result in the document as a clean, optimized image.

The experience works the same across devices. There's no special hardware required and nothing extra to configure on the integration side. Whether your signer is on an iPhone or a Windows desktop, the draw canvas renders correctly and the resulting signature looks like what it is: their actual handwriting.

Both options, typed and drawn, live in the same modal. Signers pick one and move on. There's no extra step, no separate flow, and no confusion about which option to use.

Why It Matters: More Than Just Aesthetics

A drawn signature carries a different weight than a font rendering of someone's name. For most commercial agreements, both are legally valid under ESIGN and UETA in the US, and under eIDAS SES in the EU. But there's a practical difference in how they feel to the person signing, and in some cases, to the people reviewing the signed document.

Healthcare consent forms, financial advisory agreements, and legal documents in regulated sectors often carry an expectation that signatures look like actual signatures. Typed styles are convenient, but they can read as impersonal or insufficient depending on the context and the parties involved.

For end users, drawing their signature on a phone feels natural in a way that picking a cursive font doesn't. It's closer to pen on paper, and for someone signing something important, that matters.

Enforcing Hand-Drawn Signatures via the API

For workflows where drawn signatures aren't just preferred but required, Firma.dev's API gives developers direct control. The hand_drawn_only setting in SigningRequestSettings removes the typed options entirely when set to true, leaving signers with only the draw canvas.

const response = await fetch("https://api.firma.dev/v1/signing-requests", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    name: "Patient Consent Form",
    settings: {
      hand_drawn_only: true,
      use_signing_order: true,
      allow_download: false
    },
    // ... recipients, fields
  })
});

const response = await fetch("https://api.firma.dev/v1/signing-requests", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    name: "Patient Consent Form",
    settings: {
      hand_drawn_only: true,
      use_signing_order: true,
      allow_download: false
    },
    // ... recipients, fields
  })
});

const response = await fetch("https://api.firma.dev/v1/signing-requests", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    name: "Patient Consent Form",
    settings: {
      hand_drawn_only: true,
      use_signing_order: true,
      allow_download: false
    },
    // ... recipients, fields
  })
});

The field defaults to false, so existing integrations are unaffected. It's available on all signing request endpoints: POST /signing-requests, POST /signing-requests/create-and-send, PUT /signing-requests/{id}, PATCH /signing-requests/{id}, and template creation and updates. If you're upgrading from v1.6.0, there are no breaking changes.

Use Cases Where hand_drawn_only Makes Sense

Healthcare and clinical workflows. Patient consent forms and clinical trial agreements often require signatures that clearly represent a deliberate act. Firma.dev supports HIPAA-aligned signing workflows, and hand_drawn_only adds a layer of authenticity for documents where regulators or legal counsel expect handwritten signatures. Relevant for workflows designed for FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance as well.

Financial services. Advisory agreements, loan documents, and discretionary mandates sometimes have internal policies or counterparty expectations around signature format. Enforcing hand-drawn removes ambiguity about what constitutes a valid signature in those contexts.

Legal documents. Contracts where parties expect wet-ink equivalents, settlement agreements, and notarized document flows can all benefit from requiring drawn signatures rather than typed ones.

HR onboarding in regulated sectors. Employment agreements in industries like healthcare, financial services, and government contracting sometimes carry the same expectations. A hand-drawn signature on an offer letter or NDA reads differently than a system-generated font.

Combining With Other Signing Controls

Compliance workflows rarely need just one control. hand_drawn_only works alongside the rest of Firma.dev's signing request settings, so you can configure the full workflow in a single API call.

settings: {
  hand_drawn_only: true,
  use_signing_order: true,
  expiration_hours: 72,
  allow_download: false,
  require_otp_verification: true
}

settings: {
  hand_drawn_only: true,
  use_signing_order: true,
  expiration_hours: 72,
  allow_download: false,
  require_otp_verification: true
}

settings: {
  hand_drawn_only: true,
  use_signing_order: true,
  expiration_hours: 72,
  allow_download: false,
  require_otp_verification: true
}

Signing order ensures the right people sign in the right sequence. Expiration keeps documents from sitting open indefinitely. OTP verification confirms signer identity before the document even loads. Together they give you a defensible audit trail alongside the signature itself.

Hand-drawn signatures are legally valid under ESIGN and UETA in the US and align with eIDAS SES requirements in the EU. Firma.dev's audit trail captures timestamp, IP address, and signing device for every signature regardless of type.

Getting Started

hand_drawn_only is available on all current API versions with no migration required. Set it to true on any signing request where you need it, leave it unset everywhere else.

Get started with Firma.dev for free, no credit card required. Your first signing requests cost €0.029 each (or about 3 cents USD), and there are no monthly minimums.