signature

Odoo has two things called signature, and this page covers the view widget: a header button labeled Sign that opens the standard signature dialog and saves the drawing into a binary field of the current record. It is how a warehouse operator captures a customer's signature on an outgoing delivery.

The other signature lives in the fields registry, the drawing pad you get with <field name="signature" widget="signature"/>, which renders inline and follows normal field editing. The two share a name and a dialog but nothing else: this one is a <widget> element, holds no value, and decides for itself how the image is stored.

Signature capture is usually about proof: proof of delivery, proof of handover, proof that an inspection happened. Putting the Sign button in the form header makes the capture a one-click step at the moment of truth, on a tablet at the customer's door in the core scenario, and the image lands on the record itself where reports like the delivery slip can print it.

The full_name attribute matters for defensibility. Pointed at the partner field, it stamps the signer's name into the signature block, so the printed document shows who signed rather than an anonymous scribble. Teams using deliveries, rentals, equipment handovers or visitor logs get a legally cleaner document for the cost of one attribute.

Core's delivery Sign button

<widget name="signature" string="Sign" highlight="1"
        full_name="partner_id"
        invisible="not id or picking_type_code != 'outgoing' or state != 'done' or is_signed"
        groups="stock.group_stock_sign_delivery"/>

From stock_picking_views.xml. Highlighted once the delivery is done, plain before; both write into the picking's default signature field.

Signing into a custom field

<widget name="signature" string="Sign Inspection"
        signature_field="inspector_signature"
        full_name="inspector_id"
        invisible="not id"/>

inspector_signature must be a binary field on the model; it does not need to be in the view.

Three source-level details separate this widget from its field namesake. First, the dialog configuration is hardcoded: draw mode, a 3:1 display ratio, and noInputName, so the signer cannot switch to the typed-font or upload modes that the field widget offers. The name seeding is the only flexible part: with full_name set, a many2one contributes its display_name and any other field its raw value.

Second, there is a genuine piece of dead code. The 19 source assigns nameAndSignatureProps.defaultFont = this.props.defaultFont, but defaultFont is neither declared in the widget's props nor produced by extractProps, so it is always undefined. The development branch declares the prop, yet still never extracts it from XML, so as of now the default font remains unsettable from a view in every version.

Third, the save path: orm.write followed by record.load() and a model notify. That makes the signature durable even if the user then discards the form, a surprise if you expected discard to undo it, and it is why the widget shows nothing useful on unsaved records.

Odoo 20 is expected at Odoo Experience in Brussels, 24 to 26 September 2026. We read the widget's file on the public development branch at the time of writing; the branch is unstable and this page will be re-verified after release.

No XML-visible changes. The component migrates to the Owl typed-props syntax and finally declares the defaultFont prop, but extractProps is unchanged, so the new prop still cannot be set from a view. Attributes, dialog behavior and the direct-write flow are identical to 19.