First Look: Breaking the print / sign / fax cycle with Zosh for iPhone
Zosh [$2.99, iTunes Link] provides a way to do just that. It's an iPhone-based tool for marking up and signing PDF documents with text, dates, and signatures. The company says that Microsoft Word document support will be available soon.
Zosh works in concert with a secure file server to make the documents available to your iPhone. When you receive a document as an attachment to an email message, you just forward it from your Zosh account email address to a special zosh.com address. Zosh recognizes your email address and then stores the document folder; the contents of that folder are visible on your iPhone on a Documents screen. For training purposes, Zosh has created a "Getting Started with Zosh" PDF that you can read for step-by-step instructions and hands-on demonstrations.
To view the document, you simply tap on its name. When you find a place that you need to annotate with a date, text, or signature, you simply tap on the Insert button and you're given a choice of what to insert. If you choose date, a date picker with several different date formats appears. Selecting text brings up a text edit field into which you type the text you want to annotate the PDF with. To add a signature, an automatically scrolling window appears into which you write your name on the touchsc. I found that using a stylus like the Pogo Stylus helped me to create a more accurate signature than my finger.
Any of the annotations can be in a choice of four colors -- blue, black, gray, and red -- and can be moved around the page, rotated 360°, resized (bigger or smaller), or deleted. For text annotations, you can choose from a variety of fonts, although none of them really stood out as being unique. Of course, if you're annotating a contract or other legal document, I'm not sure you want to put text in some sort of oddball font.
Once you're done signing the document, you "transmit" it back to your email address or that of another recipient. There's no need to print the original, find a pen to sign the document, then scan and or fax the document before sending it on. Zosh does exactly what it sets out to do, breaking the cycle of wasteful printing and faxing, and it does it on the iPhone alone. While testing the app on a business trip, I had the opportunity to use Zosh to annotate and sign a couple of documents, and I found it to be a lifesaver.
While Zosh isn't for everybody, if you are the type of person who needs to receive, annotate, and sign documents, and then return them to another person, the app is worth much more than the $2.99 price tag.
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Source: http://zosh.com/
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Even though TUAW might not have been the first to mention this, I appreciate that they did.
Please keep posting interesting apps like this.
I don't read those other blogs...!
I use RightSignature, which is a great web app for getting documents signed online. RightSignature also has a slick iPhone app that lets you sign on the touchscreen.
December 11 2009 at 12:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyyep.. definitely never sending a signed, legally binding document, or ever a digital copy of my signature to ANY 3rd party. that's begging for trouble.
Digital signatures ARE legal in USA and most countries, butâ¦
Both parties must agree that they are acceptable. For USA, see the 'SEAL' digital signature act-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Signature_And_Electronic_Authentication_Law
ALSO, there is a nice workflow management product along the same lines with a free app, EchoSign
http://www.echosign.com
Why/how did they pick "Zosh" as the name for this application??
December 09 2009 at 11:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replytuaw what has happen you used to be my go to source for news and info. Now it seems you guys are always a few day behind or in this case almost a month behind http://gizmodo.com/5408527/sign-documents-on-your-iphone-through-zosh-app
December 09 2009 at 10:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI'd like something simpler - let people fax my iPhone. Fax is received as a PDF document.
Markup and signing are nice, but there's still an import problem.
Sounds good, but does it have to use the Mail app or can it use web-based mail to work its magic?
December 09 2009 at 9:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySignature quality is bound to be pretty poor. A good alternative is agree2.com. Their routines for verifying receipt and identity are pretty slick.
December 09 2009 at 9:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyGreat... except that in many cases, a signed, faxed document is legally binding, but an electronically-signed version is not.
December 09 2009 at 9:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyActually I believe that they are all legally binding, It's just whether the receiver finds it acceptable to them. We refuse faxes because they are not as clear and because it's 100 year old technology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax_machine) that is just as easily stolen or fraudulent. With PDF transmission we have proof of it being sent and received by the correct individual.
December 09 2009 at 3:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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