E-Signature vs Email Signature

An e-signature and an email signature are two unrelated concepts that share a confusing name. An e-signature (electronic signature, sometimes 'digital signature') is the electronic equivalent of a handwritten signature, used to legally sign documents: contracts, employment agreements, NDAs, real estate paperwork. E-signatures are produced by platforms like DocuSign, Adobe Acrobat Sign, HelloSign, and PandaDoc, and are legally binding under the U.S. ESIGN Act, the EU eIDAS regulation, and similar national laws. They typically involve identity verification, audit trails, and tamper-evident document storage. An email signature, by contrast, is the contact and brand block at the bottom of an email message: name, title, contact details, logo, optional banner, optional CTA. Email signatures are presentational; they do not sign or authenticate the email. The two are sometimes conflated because both contain the word 'signature.' Email signature management software handles the brand block; e-signature platforms handle legally binding document signing. Both can be used by the same organization for entirely different purposes.