Establish Trust with a Root Certificate in Adobe

Overview

Adobe has a stringent requirement called the Adobe Approved Trusted List (AATL), which allows Certificate Authority vendors and partners to become trusted by default. As mentioned before, Proof used IdenTrust, which is part of AATL, however, certificates issued to individual notaries are not necessarily included in the AATL program.

If your document is missing the green checkmark in Adobe or you're receiving an error message (such as "At least one signature has problems"), don't worry! This does not mean the integrity of tamper sealing the documents by Proof is compromised or flawed. It just means the document was notarized before May 1, 2024 (when we launched Proof Digital Certificates), but the steps below should solve the issue.

Once the process below is completed, you can Verify the Digital Certificate for a Notarized Document.

Click a link below to jump to that section:

• Step 1: Download the file
• Step 2: Import the certificates
  • Import IGC Device CA 1
  • Import IGC CA 1

Establish Trust with Adobe

For a relying party — e.g., county clerk, courthouse, state agency — to independently verify the validity of a IdenTrust Root Certificate, they must first install a file in their Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat desktop software. This file creates a trust relationship between the PDF reading tool and the IdenTrust Root Certificate, which enables Adobe to issue the green checkmark if the digital certificate is valid.

Adobe Reader and Acrobat requires one-time trusting of the IdenTrust Root certificate. This can be accomplished by installing the IdenTrust-provided .fdf file on the computer to verify notarized documents.

Step 1: Download the file

To verify a notary's digital certificate and the Proof platform eSignature digital certificate, download the IdenTrust-IGC-Certificate-Verification.fdf file at the bottom of this article.

Back to top

Step 2: Import the certificates

Two certificates need to be imported.

1. IGC Device CA 1: Used for the Proof platform eSignature digital certificate
2. IGC CA 1: Used for the notary's digital certificate

Use the steps below to import these files. Once downloaded, follow these instructions to create the trust relationship.

Import IGC Device CA 1

1. Open the FDF file that you downloaded.
2. Select IGC Device CA 1 and click Add Contacts to List of Trusted Identities in the Data Exchange File - Import pop-up message that appears. 
3. Select IGC CA 1 under Contacts, then select IGC CA 1 under Certificates in the Choose Contacts to Import pop-up message that appears.
4. Select Trust.
5. Check the box next to:
   • • Adobe 6: Trust Signatures created with this Certificate
     • Adobe 7, 8: Trust this Certificate for: Signatures and as a Trusted Root
     • Adobe 9: Choose the Use this certificate as a trusted root 
6. Select OK. 
7. Select Import.
8. Select OK again.
9. Select Close if the box does not close automatically.

*The steps above also apply to Adobe Acrobat if installed.

Import IGC CA 1

1. Double-click on the FDF file that you downloaded.
2. Select IGC CA 1 and Add Contacts to List of Trusted Identities in the Data Exchange File - Import pop-up window that appears. 
3. Select IGC Device CA 1 under Contacts in the Choose Contacts to Import pop-up that appears.
4. Select IGC Device CA 1 under Certificates.
5. Select Trust. 
6. Check the box next to:
   
   • • Adobe 6: Trust Signatures created with this Certificate
     • Adobe 7, 8: Trust this Certificate for: Signatures and as a Trusted Root
     • In Adobe 9: Use this certificate as a trusted root
7. Select OK.
8. Select Import.
9. Select OK again.
10. Select Close if the box does not close automatically.

Once the process above is completed, you can Verify the Digital Certificate for a Notarized Document.

Back to top

© 2023-2024 Notarize, Inc. (dba Proof.com) All Rights Reserved.