Product Name	Key Store	Whole Chain	Revocation	Operating Systems	What Crypto	What does it sign	Multiple Signatures	Signature Format	Interoperability	Timestamp Source	Active Content	Point in Time Validation and Logging	Webform Signing	Signing Options	Industry Certifications	Who is using product	Other
InfoMosaic	Windows or Netscape/Mozilla or PKCS-12 file	yes, flexible	CRL, OCSL, CAM	Windows, soon Linux/Mac		anything	yes	XML D-sig	XML D-Sig aware tools	Local or Trusted Service	some protection	Can include CRL, OCSP, etc response in signed document			SecureXML is JITC certified	Many
E-lock DeskSeal	Windows or PKCS-12 file		Operating System	Windows	Operating System	Any file, added cost option to embed signature in a PDF	Yes	PKCS-7	Should work with any PKCS-7 or PDF with internal PKCS-7 signature	Operating System, added cost option for 3rd party timestamp support		None apparent	No	Can include Reason to Sign and Location			A free verify reader is available
E-Lock DeskSeal Web Version	Windows			Windows (none other shown on web site	Operating System	Any file that can be selected and uploaded	Yes	PKCS-7	Should work with PKCS-7 tools	OS, other options may exist		Possibly something on server	Yes	Can include Reason to Sign and Location			Can sign files that are then uploaded or files that are already on the server
Microsoft Office Products (Word/Excel)	Windows		Operating System	Microsoft Windows	Operating System	A signature is placed into the Office document	Yes		Microsoft Office products	Operating System	unknown	none	n/a	Select certificate			Signature capability improved in Office 2003, exists in Office XP
Adobe Acrobat (Standard)	Can use Windows Integration or PKCS12	yes	yes, crl and ocsp	Windows and Macintosh	Internal?		PDF documents	yes, also enables original signer to certify document	?	Adobe - ?	unknown	Workstation, timestamp servers can be used	Some checks are available	Select certificate
Open Office 2.0	Mozilla on Linux, ? on other OS			Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD	Can build with MSCrypto, OpenSSL, NSS, or GnuTLS	OASIS standard OpenDocument documents	Yes	Standard XML signatures	XML signature tools	Operating System				Select Certificate

1. Key Store
   This column indicates which store or stores the application uses to hold certificates and private keys. For example, does it leverage the Microsoft operating system store under Windows, Keychain with MacOS, or use some private application-specific mechanism to hold key information? The key store information can be important since it can impact both the ease of use of the product and the level of assurance of the signatures that it verifies. The use of a native operating system key store typically means that users will have easy access to the certificates and keys that they use for other services and will find it easy to sign documents. The use of an application specific key store generally means that users will need to import certificates and keys making the application harder to use. However, with an application specific key store, more control over which root certificates are trusted is typically possible. This may be important for certian signature applications where the processes involved may not want to trust the dozens of root certificates in the browser's key store for signature validation.

2. Whole Chain
   Does the application bunde all of the certificates needed to validate the digital signature into the document? Fewer signature verification problems are typically encountered when all of the certificates needed to validate the trust path are included in the document itself. Automatic intermediate certificate discovery is still difficult in many PKI implementations.

3. Revocation
   What mechanisms does the application support for certificate revocation checking? Are CRLs and/or OCSP used. If so, are the revocation checks performed by the application itself or are APIs in the native operating system used.

4. Operating Systems
   Which operating systems are supported by the product. Are the same digital signature and verification features available on all operating systems?

5. Does the system contain its own crypto software or does it leverage functionality in the host operating system?
6. What can the tool sign (e.g., PDF, Word, etc)
7. Does the tool support multiple signatures on a document?
8. What signature format is supported? (i.e XML DSig, CMS or PKCS7, Adobe are the 3 I am most familiar with but there could be some other proprietary format too)
9. Can signatures created with the tool be verified by other 3rd party applications or must the verifier also have the same software?
10. Does the time/date stamp come from the operating system or some trusted source?
11. Does the tool do anytding to help with the signed active content problem?
12. Does the tool do anything special to facilitate point in time signature validation and logging on receipt? If validation is logged, is the log cryptographically protected such tdat it can be validated at a later date.
13. Does the product support signing web forms such that both the POST data from the user and the full data needed to display what the what the user saw when they pushed the "sign" button are included in the signed data?
14. What signing options are available?
15. What industry certifications do they have?
16. Where are they being used today?
17. How might the tool fit into the normal campus process workflow?