Pink ribbon (digital signature) icon missing on a PDF form

windows

Symptoms

A form that should support digital signatures opens without the pink signature ribbon icon, leaving signature fields unusable.

Likely cause

The PDF is opening in a non-Adobe viewer (Edge, the built-in Windows 10/11 reader, or a browser PDF plugin) which does not implement CAC signing.

Fix

1. Install Adobe Reader from https://get.adobe.com/reader. 2. Open Settings > Apps > Default apps (or 'Choose default apps by file type' on older builds). 3. Find '.pdf' and set the default to Adobe Acrobat Reader. 4. Save the form locally first, then open it from disk rather than directly inside the browser.

Sourced from militarycac.com. Rewritten for clarity.

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