Scanned Notarized Document: What the Scan and OCR Keep
By Schema LawPublished Updated
A scanned notarized document is a picture of the notarized paper: it shows the notary's certificate, signature and inked stamp, but it is a copy, and whoever receives it decides whether a copy will do. OCR keeps the printed certificate wording, and may misread or lose handwritten entries and a raised seal.
Is a scanned notarized document still notarized?
Scanning does not undo a notarization, and it does not create one. The notarial act happened on the paper, and the scan is a copy of that paper showing the notary's certificate. Whether a copy is accepted in place of the original depends on who is asking for it, so check that recipient's rule.
Washington's notary statute, as one example, ties the act to the record itself. It says "A notarial act must be evidenced by a certificate" in RCW 42.45.130(1), and in subsection (7) that for a paper record "a certificate must be part of, or securely attached to, the record." A scan of both pages shows that the certificate exists and what it says. The scan is a third thing, an image of the record and its certificate. Other states word their statutes differently, so read your own.
Who decides whether the image is enough:
| Recipient | Where to look for its rule |
|---|---|
| A court | The evidence rules and local rules of that court |
| A recording office | The office's published recording requirements |
| A government agency | The form instructions or the agency's filing rules |
| A bank, insurer or counterparty | Its written requirements, or the contract clause on originals |
For federal courts, Federal Rule of Evidence 1003 makes a duplicate admissible "to the same extent as the original", with two stated exceptions. That rule concerns admissibility in proceedings the federal rules govern. It says nothing about what a county recorder or a foreign registry will take.
So keep the paper. Store the original where the matter's originals are kept, note its location in the file, and treat the scan as the working copy. The wider question for signed agreements is covered in the post on whether a scanned copy of a signed contract is an original.
Read the notary public's certificate on the image and copy it into your working note. Take the notary's name, any commission number printed there, and the date of the act. Record whether the certificate says the signer acknowledged the document or signed under oath. If the seal is not visible on the scan, write that in the same note.
Why does an embossed notary seal vanish in a scan?
An embossed seal is a pattern pressed into the paper with no ink. A scanner lights the page evenly from the front, so the raised ridges cast almost no shadow and the image shows blank paper where the seal sits. Nothing is wrong with the file; the capture method cannot see relief.
Washington's statute defines an official stamp as "a physical image affixed to or embossed on a tangible record or an electronic image attached to or logically associated with an electronic record" in RCW 42.45.010(11), and requires in RCW 42.45.150(3) that "The seal or stamp must be capable of being copied together with the record to which it is affixed or attached or with which it is logically associated." Requirements differ by state, so a document from elsewhere may carry a seal that is embossed only.
What to do at capture, for a notarial certificate:
- Look at the paper first. Tilt the certificate page under a lamp and look beside the notary's signature. Note in the file whether a raised seal is present, an inked stamp, or both.
- Capture the seal as a second image. The method, a side-lit photograph kept beside the scan with nothing done to the paper, is set out under capturing a raised seal so it shows without altering the original.
- Write down what the seal says while the paper is in your hands: the notary's name, the state and any commission details, since the scan may never show them.
An inked stamp shows on a scan, but one placed across typed text makes the words under it hard to recognize. The post on whether OCR can read stamps over text covers that case.
What OCR reads in an acknowledgment or a jurat
OCR can read the printed wording of a notarial certificate when the print is clean: the venue lines, the certificate sentence and the printed labels. It is weaker on what was added by hand, which is the date, the signer's name, the notary's signature and, where it is handwritten, the commission expiration.
Two certificates to know in a contract file are the acknowledgment and the jurat. Washington defines an acknowledgment in RCW 42.45.010(1) as "a declaration by an individual in the presence of a notarial officer stating that the individual has signed a record of the individual's free will for the purpose stated in the record". "Jurat" is the common name for the certificate on a sworn statement; the Washington statute's term, in RCW 42.45.010(18), is a "verification on oath or affirmation", defined as "a declaration, made by an individual on oath or affirmation before a notarial officer, that a statement in a record is true." Confirm the terms your own state uses.
| Part of the certificate | How it is made | What to expect from recognition |
|---|---|---|
| Venue: "State of", "County of" | Printed labels, filled in by type or hand | Labels read; a handwritten county may not |
| Certificate sentence | Printed | Reads on a clean scan |
| Date of the act | Typed or filled in by hand | Check every digit against the image |
| Name of the person appearing | Typed or handwritten | Check the spelling against the signature block |
| Notary's signature | Handwritten | Treat as an image, not text |
| Inked stamp | Small capitals inside a border | May read in part; compare with the image |
| Embossed seal | No ink | Nothing to read |
Schema Law's homepage says recognition is strongest on clean print and weaker on handwriting and on stamps over text, and that nothing marks a passage as uncertain; the questions section has the wording. Read every certificate against its image yourself.
The signer's own signature block sits beside or above the certificate, and its dates can differ from the notary's date. The section on handwritten dates, initials and notary blocks beside a signature explains how to record both. If you convert the page to Word, the seal and signatures arrive as pictures or not at all; see the post on scanning a signature into Word.
Recording the notary's name, commission and date from a scan
Record the notary details in a small table, one row per notarial certificate, typed by a person reading the page image. These fields let someone confirm later that the certificate was complete and find the notary if a question comes up.
Washington's statute lists what a certificate must contain in RCW 42.45.130(1), including that it be "signed and dated by the notarial officer" and "Identify the jurisdiction in which the notarial act is performed", and RCW 42.45.150(1) lists what a notary's stamp must include, among them "The notary public's name as commissioned" and "The notary public's commission expiration date". Use your own state's list to set your columns. A general layout:
| Field | Example entry | Read from |
|---|---|---|
| Document and page | Deed of trust, scan p. 14 | The file |
| Type of certificate | Acknowledgment | The certificate wording |
| Venue | State of Washington, County of Skagit | Top of the certificate |
| Date of notarial act | 2024-11-08 | The certificate, by eye |
| Person who appeared | Ilse Varden, as Manager of Kettle Cove LLC | The certificate |
| Notary's name | R. T. Okafor | The stamp, checked against the signature |
| Commission number, if shown | 20104477 | The stamp |
| Commission expiration | 2027-03-15 | The stamp or a handwritten line |
| Seal type | Inked stamp; no embossing | The paper |
| Legibility notes | Stamp overlaps last line of certificate | The image |
The names and numbers are invented. Two checks are worth running on each row. The date of the notarial act should not fall after the commission expiration shown. And the person named in the certificate should be the person whose signature block the certificate follows. A mismatch in either is something to report to the responsible lawyer, not something to correct.
A mortgage or deed of trust in a loan file is one place to expect a notarial certificate; the guide to OCR for loan documents covers the rest of that set.
Remote online notarization files versus a scanned paper notarization
A remotely notarized document is born as an electronic file, and that file is the notarized record. Printing it and scanning the printout gives you a picture of the pages without whatever the notary's technology attached to the file. Keep the electronic original and do not replace it with a scan.
Washington's statute shows the difference. For electronic records, an electronic records notary public "may select one or more tamper-evident technologies to perform notarial acts with respect to electronic records" under RCW 42.45.190(2), and under RCW 42.45.130(3)(a) the official stamp "must be attached to or logically associated with the certificate." For an act with a remotely located individual, RCW 42.45.280(3)(c) makes it a condition that the electronic records notary public, or a person acting on that notary's behalf, "creates an audiovisual recording of the performance of the notarial act". Paper carries none of this. A printout shows the stamp image and the words. Whatever tamper-evident technology was applied belongs to the electronic file, not to the sheet of paper.
The same statute gives a notary a way to vouch for a paper copy of an electronic record: "A notarial officer may certify that a tangible copy of an electronic record is an accurate copy of the electronic record," in RCW 42.45.020(3). Other states have their own provisions, so check the law of the state where the act was performed.
Handling that follows:
- Recognize one when you see it. Under RCW 42.45.130(1)(g), a Washington certificate for a remote act must "indicate that the notarial act was performed using communication technology." Wording like that on a scan tells you an electronic original exists somewhere.
- Ask for the original file, from the signing platform, the title company or whoever arranged the signing.
- Store it unchanged. Do not run it through a step that rewrites the file. If you need a searchable or annotated version, make a separate copy and name it as a copy.
- Record which you hold in the notary table: electronic original, or scan of a printout.
A file that came from a signing platform may already contain selectable text, so test it before running OCR. The export formats on the Schema Law homepage list what a converted copy can be saved as when you do need one.