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A printed e-signature counts for most business letters: correspondence, notices, and routine agreements are fine with one. But some legal documents still require wet ink, a pen on paper, including wills, certain real estate transfers, and some court filings. When the document's validity could be challenged, wet ink remains the safest choice.
This is general information, not legal advice.
| Signature type | What it is | Where it works |
|---|---|---|
| Wet ink signature | Pen on paper, signed by hand | Everywhere, including documents that require originals |
| Printed e-signature (image) | A scan or image of your handwritten signature, printed onto the letter | Most business correspondence; looks like a wet signature on the page |
| Typed name as signature | Your name typed in the signature block, sometimes with "/s/" before it | Routine business letters; courts accept "/s/" in e-filed documents in many jurisdictions |
| Digital signature (cryptographic) | A mathematically verifiable signature embedded in a file | Contracts and formal e-signing platforms; the printout is just a picture of it |
Anything that represents your agreement in non-pen form: a typed name in the signature block, a scanned image of your handwritten signature placed on the page, or a signature applied through a platform like DocuSign and then printed. For everyday business letters, all of these are fine. The recipient reads the letter, sees your name in the signature block, and treats it as signed. Nobody disputes a routine business letter over the signature's ink status.
The "/s/" convention is worth knowing: in electronically filed court documents, "/s/ Jordan Ellis" in the signature block stands in for a signature, and courts in many jurisdictions accept it. If you see "/s/" on a legal document, that's what it means. But that convention belongs to e-filing systems; on a printed letter going to a non-court recipient, a scanned signature image or a typed name reads more naturally.
A short list of documents traditionally demands an original pen-on-paper signature: wills, many real estate deeds and mortgage documents, some notarized documents, and certain court filings that require originals. The reason isn't nostalgia: a wet signature is harder to forge convincingly, and some statutes were written before e-signatures existed and still say "signed" meaning ink.
E-signature laws (like the ESIGN Act in the US and its state and provincial equivalents) made electronic signatures broadly valid for most transactions, but they carve out exceptions, and the exceptions vary by jurisdiction. Rules also vary by institution: your bank, your county recorder, or the specific court may have its own requirements regardless of what the statute allows. When in doubt, check with the receiving party before you print.
Match the signature to the stakes. Routine letter, notice, or business correspondence: a printed e-signature or typed name is fine. Anything a lawyer would call an "instrument": contract, deed, affidavit, filing: use wet ink, or confirm in writing that the recipient accepts an e-signature. The cost of being wrong is a rejected filing or a disputed document; the cost of being careful is a pen and an envelope.
If you're having a letter printed and mailed by a service like LetterAgent, remember the letter prints exactly as you provide it: include your signature as a scanned image in the document if you want one on the page, since there's no pen step in the process. For documents that need true wet ink, print and sign them yourself instead.
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