Add a company chop to a PDF
Upload the PDF, place the company chop where it belongs on the page, and download the chopped copy. Red ink, round, and transparent so the text reads through it.
Add a company chop to a PDF templates, ready to edit
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Every preview on this page carries a faint Estamplab watermark. Your own download does not: the editor renders your stamp again, clean, as a transparent PNG, an SVG or a PDF. See the full template library.
In much of Asia the chop is the company acting, not a decoration alongside a signature. A document without the right chop is not an informally signed document, it is an unexecuted one, and that is why the practice around chops is so much more precise than the practice around a European rubber stamp. Applying one to a PDF has to respect that: right colour, right shape, over the signature line, and readable through.
What you get
- Red by default, because that is the colour a chop is and a blue one reads as a foreign document.
- Round for the company chop, square for a name or department chop, which is the distinction people actually look for.
- Transparent ink, so the printed name and the signature line read through the impression the way they do on paper.
- Placed over the signature line or the company name, which is where a chop belongs rather than in a corner.
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters supported, with the text stored as text rather than as a picture.
- One on the last page, or on every page, and a straddle position across the join for a multi-page set.
How to make it
- Open the tool and drop your PDF or Word file onto the page.
- Pick a stamp from your library, or design one in the pop-up designer.
- Click the page where the stamp goes, then drag it or resize it from the corner.
- Download the stamped copy. Your original file is never modified.
Questions
What is the difference between a company chop and a seal?
They are the same object described in two traditions. Chop is the word used across China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and much of southeast Asia; seal is the word used in company law. In practice a company chop is the round red impression that represents the company itself, and it is distinct from the department, finance and legal representative chops that sit beside it.
Why is the chop red?
Because the paste traditionally used is a vermilion cinnabar ink, and the colour has become the signal. Red also distinguishes the chop from the black printing of the document and from a photocopy, at a glance, which is exactly what a mark of execution should do.
Does an electronic chop count?
That depends on the jurisdiction and increasingly on whether the electronic chop is registered with the relevant authority or a recognised provider. Several jurisdictions have specific electronic chop or electronic seal regimes and an image is not the same thing as a registered one. Check the requirement with your company secretary or the receiving party rather than assuming.
Can I make a chop for a company I do not represent?
No. A company chop is the company acting, so applying one without authority is forgery rather than a design choice. You must be entitled to use the chop you apply.
Where should the chop go?
Over the company name and the signature line at the end of the document, overlapping both. On a bound set, a chop straddling the page join is common so that no page can be swapped afterwards.
Estamplab is a design tool. This page describes common commercial practice rather than giving legal, tax or financial advice, and practice changes. Where a specific document matters, check the requirement with the body receiving it. Only produce a mark your own organisation or your own credentials are entitled to use.