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CertifiO® Digital Signatures & Signing Tools
Discover our professional solutions to digitally sign your electronic documents on desktop or cloud.
ConsignO Cloud® Electronic Signature
Easily manage the signing process of your electronic documents and have clients sign anywhere, anytime, on any device.
Commercial Solutions - Business Partners
Integrate reliable and proven digital signatures or electronic signatures to your platforms and GIS systems thanks to our APIs.
Validation Tools
Validate signed electronic documents.
API
Automate the signature and validation processes.
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Architecture
& Construction

Join the thousands of architects who digitally sign and seal their plans, specifications and other documents to certify their authenticity and prevent forgery.

Find your Professional Association
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Digital Signature
and Signing Tool

The most efficient solutions to sign your professional documents

Protect your identity and the integrity of your electronic documents by converting all of your paper-based processes to digital ecosystems.

The Advantages of your CertifiO Desktop
Digital Signature

More than 50,000 professionals currently use a digital signature in Canada. Digital identities are changing industries and are allowing professionals to digitally transform. Find out why.

 

Find Your Signature and Signing Tools

Digital signatures for individuals Digital signatures for companies Electronic signature tools Document validation tools

Digitally sign your documents in respect of your regulatory framework or your company’s requirements.

  • Online identity verification
  • Increased productivity
  • Conformity to your regulatory framework
  • Guaranteed security and reliability
  • Reduced costs
  • Smaller environmental footprint

Find Your Professional Association's Signature:
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I practice
In the province of
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Digitally sign your PDF documents on behalf of your department or company.

  • Guaranteed security and reliability, Conformity to your regulatory framework, Increased productivity.

Two options:

    • Signature affixed by an individual (generally using ConsignO or Adobe products)
Signature for departments
    • Signature automatically affixed by your systems (usually for large volumes of documents)Signature for organisations

Digitally prepare and sign your documents

Our range of tools makes your document preparation and signing process quick and efficient. With our easy-to-use solutions, you’ll achieve tangible gains in efficiency.

  • Guaranteed compliance
  • Increased productivity
  • Reduced costs
  • Fully digital process
  • Smaller environmental footprint
Find out more

Verify the reliability of your documents

Verify a signer’s identity, as well as the integrity, authenticity and longevity of both your electronic PDF documents and printed documents.

  • Increased productivity
  • Identity validation
  • Secure processes
Find out more

Significant Benefits

Reduced Costs and Environmental Impacts

  • Reduced document printing and handling costs
  • Elimination of shipping costs
  • Minimal archiving costs
  • Reduced environmental footprint

Find out how much you could save

Innovate faster with ConsignO Desktop

Improve your productivity and efficiency by watching the 20 training videos that explain each fonction of your digital signature software included for FREE with your digital signature! →Watch the playlist

 

Solutions Recognized by Professional Engineering and Architectural Associations

Cities, governments, utilities and private companies are increasingly demanding digitally signed plans to reduce archiving costs and increase efficiency. We are the only provider in North America to comply with the regulatory and legislative requirements of all professional engineering and architectural associations in Canada and the majority of professional engineering and architectural associations in the United States.

Authenticity, Integrity and Long-term Reliability

Our digital signature confirms the signer’s identity and, when required, their professional affiliation, at the exact time of signing. Thereafter, it also ensures that the signed document has not been modified or altered. Using the digital signature in combination with the advanced features of our ConsignO Desktop PDF reader results in authentic, PDF/A-compliant documents that can be read and validated decades from now.

PDF/A-3 conformity allows you to attach files in any format, such as the source files of your plans or spreadsheets, whose integrity is also protected by the digital signature.

 
60,000
professionals use our digital signature in Canada.
24 / 7
Sign from anywhere in the world, any time of day. Don’t let a signature prevent a project from moving forward.
Up To 86%
Savings. The status quo is more expensive than making the digital transition which, in its totality, significantly increases team productivity.
100 %
verifiable. A CertifiO digital signature protects your original document. All future alterations are detected.
 

“We're going to have to imagine, design and deliver our work much more productively and efficiently than ever before.”

- Jeff DiBattista, DIALOG

Notarius and your Association

Learn more about digital signatures and find out the responses to your questions in the video series and the Q&A PDF.

5-bonnes-pratiques

5 Best Practices to Ensure Compliance

Best practices that are easy to implement and which are essential to ensuring that your electronic drawings are reliable.

Questions & Answers

What is the legal value of my signed document once it is printed?

Regardless of the medium, what is most important is the preservation of information. In Quebec, according to An Act to Establish a Legal Framework for Information Technology, RSQ, c C-1.1, to argue in evidence, it must be shown that the integrity of the information has been maintained throughout its life cycle. In other words, the content of the printed version must remain identical to its original, digitally signed, electronic version to maintain its legal validity. Conversely, the same principle can be applied, for example, to the original paper version that is digitized and sent by email. The whole of the information must be preserved and we must ensure that it has not been falsified or altered by using protective measures such as a digital signature, an electronic seal, time stamping, etc. Such measures assure that any changes made to the document can be traced.

Why do professional associations choose to issue digital signatures to their members?

Controlling the use of seals and protecting the public is an integral part of an association’s responsibilities. In paper form, this is accomplished by placing a seal that embeds the name, member number and designation as a member and is made official by hand-signing and dating the document. But how can associations securely seal official documents in a digital world where a seal can easily be replicated and copied from one document to another? Associations that offer digital signatures choose to control use of seals in a digital world to ensure that only members in good standing can sign official documents. It also allows clients and government agencies to instantly verify that the document has been signed by a professional with the authority to do so.

Are Notarius digital signatures recognized worldwide?

Notarius digital signatures are used to sign official documents and meet the standards of many countries. However, each jurisdiction may have specific requirements that must be met in order to be recognized. For example, in France, many agencies will only recognize French certificate authorities. In the United States, requirements for authenticating engineering documents will mostly be limited to a technological baseline, but not specific to a provider or a standard. As such, Notarius digital signatures meet or exceed the minimum requirements for all US states (except Hawaii). It is important to verify local digital signature requirements with recipients prior to submitting signed documents that use Notarius digital signatures.

Of course, other considerations need to be evaluated before making a digital shift. Please feel free to reach out to Notarius for a working session on the subject for further discussion

How are digital signatures secure? Can they be hacked?

Digital signatures are based on cryptography that was originally designed in the 1970s and is still considered the standard to secure different types of data. Digital signatures and their cryptographic derivatives are used in our daily lives to secure websites, communications, documents and financial transactions. If digital signatures were “hacked,” the first case of attack would likely be in the financial, military or government sector. An individual’s signed PDF document would be the least of a signer’s worries.

Why are Notarius digital signatures trusted and recognized by government agencies?

Not all digital signatures are issued and controlled in the same manner. Governments tend to limit the number of certificate authorities they will recognize or authorize. Strict guidelines are established and audited to ensure that the approved digital signature certificate authority has the proper technology, security, policy and process in place to guarantee the identity of all digital signatures issued. Notarius was created in the 1990s by Quebec’s Chambre des notaires (Board of Notaries) to build a government-grade certificate authority recognized by the Government of Quebec’s electronic land titles registry. Even today, very few third-party certificate authorities are authorized to issue trusted digital signatures for interaction with government agencies. Notarius is the only third-party certificate authority recognized by multiple provincial governments in Canada.

What is the difference between your digital signature service and the image of my seal?

The image of your seal is what is called an “electronic signature.” It is the visual representation of your identity; however, the legal reliability of this type of signature is very limited. A digital signature, on the other hand, is an electronic locking mechanism that protects your original PDF. The only way to modify the original content is to break this protective mechanism. However, once this mechanism has been broken, the modified copy is simply an altered copy since the original document must conserve this cryptographic protection in order to be considered as the original.

What happens when I print an “original” PDF copy?

The printed version is a copy— nothing more, nothing less. You can produce one or two original copies of the electronic document and make multiple subsequent copies of it. It is the same as scanning a paper document into PDF format: the PDF is simply a copy. The ability to produce an original document and make copies is what is essential. A digital signature allows you to produce an original document in electronic format.

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