Most of the tools discussed on this site are for sealing your own work. There's a separate, equally common situation: someone sends you a signed PDF, a contract, an attestation, a signed report, and you need to know whether the signature on it is actually what it claims to be. You didn't create the document, and you have no relationship with whatever tool the other party used to sign it. The /validate tool exists for exactly that moment.
What it checks
Upload any signed PDF, and the tool inspects the signature embedded in the file and returns a direct verdict: whether the timestamp is qualified, who the signer's verified identity is, and whether the signature meets eIDAS and ZertES requirements. There's no account to create and no relationship required with whoever produced the document. You're checking the file itself, not asking anyone to vouch for it.
Why this matters beyond your own documents
A signature that looks official on screen, a logo, a name, a date, tells you nothing about whether it's a qualified electronic signature with the legal standing of a handwritten one under OR Article 14 paragraph 2bis, or a basic visual signature with none of that weight. The two can look identical to the eye. For a law firm receiving a signed engagement letter, a business receiving a signed contract, or anyone accepting a signed attestation from a third party, that distinction is exactly what determines whether the document holds up if it's ever questioned.
What a passing result actually means
A verdict confirming a qualified timestamp and a verified signer identity means the signature carries the legal weight eIDAS and ZertES attach to it, independent of who is telling you that. You're not relying on the sender's word, or on a visual seal that anyone could recreate in an image editor. You're checking the cryptographic reality of the signature itself.
The tool works the same way whether the document was signed through our platform or another qualified trust service, since the check is against the signature standard itself, not against a proprietary record only we hold.
