Why this matters
When you open a notarized PDF in Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat, you may see a green checkmark confirming that the document's digital certificate is trusted. Sometimes, instead, Adobe may display a warning such as “At least one signature has problems.”
This does not necessarily mean that your document has been altered or that the notarization is invalid. In most cases, it simply means that Adobe does not yet recognize the certificate chain used to sign the document as trusted on your computer.
To establish trust, you only need to install the required certificates once. After they are installed, Adobe will automatically recognize future notarized documents signed with the same certificate chain.
Who should use this guide
Signers who want to verify the authenticity of their notarized documents.
Businesses and relying parties (e.g., county clerks, courts, lenders, title companies, and government agencies) who need to independently validate digitally notarized documents.
Steps to Establish Trust in Adobe
1. Download the required trust certificates
IdenTrustGlobalCommonRoot.fdf (Root Certificate)
OneNotaryChainCA.p7b (OneNotary certificate chain)
2. Open the notarized document in Adobe Acrobat or Reader
(Download Adobe Reader if needed)
3. Install the certificates
Open Adobe Preferences and import both certificates into Adobe's trusted certificate store.
See the step-by-step Guideflow below.:
Notes
This is a one-time setup per computer. After installing both certificates, Adobe will automatically recognize all future notarized documents signed through OneNotary and display the green checkmark when all signatures validate successfully.
The document's digital signatures and tamper-evident protections remain valid even if the green checkmark is not displayed. The green checkmark simply indicates that Adobe trusts the signing certificate on your computer.
Need to verify the certificate?
After installing the certificates, you can verify the document's digital certificate and signature details by following How to Check the Document's Digital Certificate.