Digital contracts are the norm today. Is there still power in a written signature?

Some of the most powerful people in the world can be recognized by their signatures.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's signature adorns Canadian currency, from his time as head of the Bank of Canada. And U.S. President Donald Trump regularly displays his oversized, sloping signature for the cameras with each new executive order.

But these days, it's far more common for most of us to sign our names on a touch screen, or to simply click a box on an online form, than to sign your name with a pen on paper.

Author Christine Rosen isn't happy about it.

"We're actively choosing to go back to a way of life where a mark is the same as a signature. So it's a devolution in terms of our skills as human beings," she told The Sunday Magazine's Peter Mitton.

Rosen's book The Extinction of Experience looks at how the onslaught of digital life is hollowing out real-life experiences, like the act of physically signing your name.

"I fear that our willingness to suspend that small, everyday action is sort of symbolic of some of the other important things we've discarded in our haste to embrace digitally mediated forms of communication," she said.

Despite their relative rarity in most people's lives today — and the legal ambiguity that came with the introduction of electronic signatures — written signatures still carry power as a personal artistic expression, whether you've carefully designed your own or paid a professional to do it for you.

E-signatures are just over 25 years old in the U.S. In June 2000, then-U.S. president Bill Clinton signed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act into law.

The act allowed for electronic records, including digital versions of a signature, to be used for business transactions that earlier required a person's written signature for validation.

In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, which became law in April 2000, outlines the use of e-signatures. Provinces and territories have followed suit with similar legislation.

John Gregory, a retired lawyer in Toronto, says when Clinton signed that bill, some worried that the signature's "ceremonial function" might lose some of its power.

"It makes you take it seriously. Oh, jeez, I'm signing this. This is important. I should know what I'm doing. Do I really agree to this?" said Gregory, who previously worked in the U.S. on developing government policies around what happens legally when paper trails become increasingly digital.

While personal opinions on an e-signature's weight may vary, the law has since moved on.

Gregory pointed to a 2017 case in Saskatchewan where a man who injured himself in a go-kart crash said a digital waiver he signed by checking a box shouldn't absolve the company who owned the track of any liability. The court ruled that, in fact, that check was as valid as a pen-and-paper signature.

And, in 2024, Saskatchewan's Court of King's Bench upheld a decision that a thumbs-up emoji was confirmation of a contract between two agricultural companies. One of the companies involved asked the Supreme Court of Canada to rule on that decision; it's unclear if the Court will do so.

Filomena Cozzolino, 27, styled her signature after her paternal grandmother, with whom she shares her name.

"When I was maybe 12 or 13, I found one of her IDs and I wanted to try to copy her signature," said the publishing and creative writing student at Sheridan College in Mississauga, Ont.

"Not only do we share a name, but we can share our signatures, since she's no longer here to share hers anymore."

Some of her classmates had a more business-like approach to them.

"I have very messy handwriting, actually, because I'm left-handed. So everything smudges and ... once I learned cursive, just went with the flow," said Mikayla Nicholls, 28.

Zainab Bakjsh, 24, writes her signature in Arabic, which she says looks better and is easier to write than when she does it in English. But beyond that, she's not given it much thought.

"It's just a signature. When I need to do something at the bank, or like renewing my health card, is probably the only time that I sign," she said.

While the age of correspondence via fountain pen on parchment may be long gone, there's still a niche of people interested in using signatures as a personal flourish — and even a market if you're looking for a professional to craft one for you.

"I believe that your signature is literally your face. I mean, regardless of your profession, you can impress people around you with this beautiful signature," said Elena Jovanovic, head calligrapher at Florida-based MySign Studio.

The business crafts custom signatures for patrons, offering options in multiple script styles. Their calligraphers will then teach you how to draw them on your own. But it'll cost you, with services ranging from $100 to $200 US.

"Many people around the world create their first signature during their teenage years and continue to use it throughout their lives. Typically, these signatures lack creativity and elegance," Jovanovic said.

Sometimes patrons request certain artistic effects, such as adding a lion or butterfly to the signature. Other requests are more esoteric.

Jovanovic recalled one customer who asked that they customize his signature by introducing a four-letter profanity into his surname — presumably only for the signature, and not as part of a legal name change.

"And I was like, why not?" she said.