How to sign a document with PQC Imza, step by step
From a PDF on your computer to a signed, verifiable document: create it on the web, name who signs, and sign with the PQC Wallet app on your phone.
3 min read
PQC Imza splits signing between two screens. You prepare documents on the web, at pqc-imza.com, where there is room to read and arrange them. You sign on your phone, with the PQC Wallet app, which holds your signing key and knows who you are. This guide walks through the whole path once.
Before you start
You need two things, both free to set up:
- An account on pqc-imza.com. Sign in with Google or Apple; there is no password to create.
- The PQC Wallet app on your phone, from the App Store or Google Play. Sign in with the same account: Apple on an iPhone, Google on Android.
The first time you sign, the app asks you to verify your identity. Hold your ID card or passport against the back of the phone and the app reads its chip over NFC, then checks that the data on it was signed by the country that issued it. You do this once; after that, your verified name stands behind every signature you make.
1. Create the document
On pqc-imza.com, choose New and either upload a PDF or build a document from a template. Give it a title so the people you send it to recognise it.
Each document is paid for once, by the person who creates it, either per document or from a pack of credits. Signing is always free for the people who sign.
2. Name the signatories
Add everyone who needs to sign, by name and email address, in the order they should sign. You can add yourself with one click.
You do not need anyone's key or wallet address. A signatory is a person, identified by their email: they sign with whichever key their phone holds when they sign, so a new phone never gets in the way.
3. Sign on the phone
Each person is emailed when it is their turn. In PQC Wallet, the document is waiting on the Sign tab. They open it, read it, and confirm with fingerprint, Face ID or their device passcode. That is the signature.
Signing in the room
Sometimes the people signing are sitting across the table. On the document's page, choose Show the code: a signing code appears on your screen, and each person scans it with PQC Wallet and signs on their own phone. If someone does not have the app yet, Signer has no app? swaps the code for one that opens their phone's app store.
A signature from someone you did not name in advance is shown to you first, and only counts once you accept it.
4. When everyone has signed
The document is complete, and three things happen on their own:
- The signed PDF is ready to download. Every page names who signed it, and a signature page at the end lists each signature with its date and the identity behind it.
- A verification link and QR code let anyone check the document later, without an account.
- A blockchain record of the document's fingerprint and of its signatures is written to SciChain. PQC Imza pays for it; you do not need a crypto wallet or any coins.
Checking a signed document
Anyone can go to Verify on pqc-imza.com and drop in the PDF. The site recomputes its fingerprint and compares it with the signed record: if even one byte has changed, it says so.
If you change phones
Sign in to PQC Wallet on the new phone with the same account and carry on. Documents are addressed to your email, not to a key, so everything waiting for you is still there. The signatures you made before stay valid, and your profile keeps a list of every key you have signed with.