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Thumbprint signing

The signature no phone can take.

Signers finish everything else from wherever they are, then walk into one of your branches to leave the print — sealed into the same document as every other signature.

What they walk up to is a counter: a fingerprint reader on a branch desk, with your staff behind it. Run one, or one per branch.

Setting up opens ghumSign. Counters run on Windows only — the full requirements are below.

A fingerprint reader on a branch counter, with a staff member beside it

How a thumbprint document gets signed

Two visits by two different people, not one ceremony. Nothing about the online half changes — the thumbprint is simply the last item on the signer's list, and the one item they cannot do from a phone.

Wherever the signer is

Their own device · No staff time

  1. Opens the document from their email, on any device.
  2. Completes every signature, initial and field it asks for.
  3. Is told a thumbprint is still needed, and is given a short code along with your office address, phone and hours.
  4. Keeps getting reminders until they come in.

At your counter

In the branch · A few minutes of staff time

  1. They arrive and read out their code — TP-7K42-91.
  2. Your staff find the request in the Thumbprints screen, searchable by code, name or document.
  3. A one-time code goes to the signer, who reads it back to confirm who they are.
  4. The reader takes the print. The document seals, and the next signer is invited.
A signer's thumb on the reader while a staff member works at the keyboard

The document is not finished until the print is taken. Under one-after-another signing, the next signer is not invited either — a thumbprint counts toward that person's signature, not as a step afterwards.

What one counter needs

That is the half in your building. Here is what it takes to stand one up — four things, and one of them rules some offices out. Check it before you plan anything else.

A Windows 10 or 11 computer
At the counter itself. The reader is reached through a local service the manufacturer ships for Windows only — there is no macOS build, and Linux is still in development.
One free USB port
The reader is plugged in, not paired. Install the driver first, then plug it in.
A reader from us
One per counter you intend to run. If you do not have one yet, ask and we will sort it out.
A staff member at the counter
Someone has to look at the person standing there. The software confirms the signer with a one-time code; it cannot confirm that anyone is present.

Not sure a branch qualifies? Tell us what you have and we will say plainly whether it will work.

Turning a counter on

Five steps, once per counter. Only the first one needs anything from us.

  1. Get a reader

    One per counter. Tell us how many you need and which branches they are for.

    Request a reader
  2. Install the driver software

    Two installers, run on the counter computer only — the device driver first, then the Auth service. Both are listed below and in your ghumSign dashboard.

  3. Plug the reader in

    USB, after the installers. The setup page tells you the moment the reader answers.

  4. Run a test capture

    The setup page takes one print and throws it away, so you know the counter works before anyone is standing at it.

  5. Work from the Thumbprints screen

    Everyone waiting on a print is listed there, searchable by code, name or document.

Counter software

Run this on the Windows machine the reader is plugged into.

What we store

Worth having straight before you put a reader in front of your customers.

A thumbprint sitting on a document page beside a drawn signature

The print is an image, not a biometric template.

It goes onto the page the same way a signature drawn with a finger does. We do not derive a template from it, and there is nothing stored that could be matched against another print.

A signer reading a one-time code from their phone at the counter

Identity comes from the code, not the print.

The signer is confirmed by a one-time code sent to them at the counter. The print is the mark on the document; it is not what proves who they are.

A document's audit trail listing a thumbprint capture

Every capture is on the record.

The document's Audit Trail records which staff member ran the capture, at which branch, on which reader, and when.

Tell us how many counters you run.

Readers come from us. Send one message with the details on the right and we will come back with what happens next for your branches.

Request a reader

What to include

  • Your organisation name on ghumSign
  • Which branches need a counter
  • How many readers in total
  • Who we should send them to, and where