Support center
Why can't my PDF reader recognize Notarius' signatures?
Here’s what you need to do to make sure all signatures are recognized. Note that installing the Entrust Client also installs these root certificates.
- Notarius Certificate Authority 1
- Recognized by Adobe and Microsoft automatically.
- Signatures must be stored on physical USB cryptographic token or through our HostedHSM service.
- Notarius Certificate Authority 2
- Recognized by Microsoft automatically.
- Adobe products need to be configured to trust all root certificates in the Windows Certificate Store (see how to below).
- Centre de Certification du Québec (CCQ)
If the instructions above do not work
The Windows Certificate Store is cloud based trust service securely operated by Microsoft; Windows will locally store a root certificate when an application asks Windows to resolve the chain of trust for a signing certificate.
Unfortunately, some PDF viewers (ex.: NitroPDF, Foxit Reader, etc) only query the local Windows certificate store instead of asking Windows to resolved the chain of trust for the signing certificate (in which case Windows would automatically downloads the necessary root certificates to the local certificate store). Until the developper of your PDF viewer fixes this (concepts to fix it are here), you can apply a workaround by installing all Notarius root certificates in the Windows Certificate Store (see how to below).
Configure Adobe products to trust the Windows Certificate Store
In Adobe, go to Edit / Preferences / Signatures / Verification, and in the Windows Integration section, select Validating Signatures and Validating Certified Documents, then click OK.
Install Notarius root certificates in the Windows Certificate Store
Depending on your need, download the CCQ root certificates or all Notarius root certificates to your computer
- CCQ 1999-2019 (for documents signed prior to 2010)
- CCQ 2010-2030 (for documents signed more recently)
- Notarius Root Autority
- Notarius Certificate Authority 1
- Notarius Certificate Authority 2
You can install each certificate manually as follow (administrive rights are required), or ask your IT admin to push them automatically.
- Right-Click on the certificate file (extension .cer), then Install Certificate, then click on Open.
- Click Next, then Next (to automatically select the store), then Finish
- Click on OK when you get the message that the certificate was imported properly.