The business side of photography is often less enjoyable than actually taking pictures. Not a day goes by where I don't have to Fax a signed W9, contract, NDA form, or some other legal document.

I'd generally receive the document as an email attachment, but then would have to open it up, print it out, sign it with a pen, fill out a Fax cover sheet, send it via Fax, then figure out what to do with a new stack of papers. I hated it!

Then at the Macworld Expo 2007, I discovered a new product called PDFpen. I've been using it for the last week, and it's saved me a lot much time. What this simple-to-use application does is enable me to edit PDF documents. So, if someone sends me a W9 to fill out and Fax back, I complete the form with PDFpen, add my signature electronically, and email it back. No more Fax machine.

The signature function is particularly cool. I scanned my real signature (bold black pen on white paper), then saved it as a Jpeg on my computer. When ever I need to add a signature to an electronic document, PDFpen allows me to import the scanned signature, scale it to the right size, and even make its background transparent so it sits right on the form's signature line. It looks great.

The software is a decent value. Adobe Acrobat 8 costs about $120 (and it enables digital signature signing), PDFpen runs $49 US, and you can download a demo to try it out. If you're spending too much time in front of the Fax machine, you might want to check it out.

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