"Electronic signature" and "digital signature" get used interchangeably. They are not the same thing, and knowing the difference keeps you from over-buying technology you do not need — or under-buying the one you do.

Wet signatures

Ink on paper. The original standard, and still required for a narrow set of documents: wills and codicils, some family law filings, and instruments that must be notarized and recorded, such as grant deeds and deeds of trust.

Electronic signatures

A legal category, not a technology. Under the ESIGN Act and UETA, an electronic signature is any electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to a record and executed with intent to sign — a typed name, a drawn mark, or a click, as long as intent, consent, attribution, and retention are documented.

This is what covers the overwhelming majority of business paperwork: purchase agreements, listing agreements, disclosures, NDAs, service contracts, employment offers, and vendor forms.

Digital signatures

A specific cryptographic implementation built on public key infrastructure (PKI). A certificate authority issues the signer a key pair, and the signature mathematically binds identity to the document, breaking visibly if a single byte changes.

Digital signatures are a subset of electronic signatures — a stronger technical method, not a different legal category. You need one when a counterparty, regulator, or foreign framework (such as eIDAS qualified signatures in the EU) explicitly requires certificate-based signing.

Choosing quickly

  • Standard business contract? Electronic signature with a solid audit trail.
  • Regulated filing that names PKI or a qualified certificate? Digital signature.
  • Notarized or recorded instrument? Wet ink, or an approved remote online notarization path.
  • Will or testamentary document? Wet ink.

What actually wins a dispute

Not the signature graphic — the evidence around it. A typed signature with an audit trail recording email, IP address, timestamp, consent, and a hash of the signed document is far more defensible than a scanned ink signature pasted into a PDF with no record of who applied it.

Every document sent through ValidaSign carries a tamper-evident stamp and a full signature certificate, so your electronic signatures come with the proof that makes them hold up.

Informational only, not legal advice.