Autopen Signature Machines: From Jefferson to ABB

An autopen signature looks like ink from a person's hand because it is real ink, laid down by a machine that copies a stored signature. Presidents, governors, authors and companies have used these machines for decades, and in 2025 and 2026 the device became a subject of political argument in Washington. This post follows the idea from Thomas Jefferson's copying machine to the autopen of the 1940s, then to the robots that now write thousands of handwritten notes a day, and looks at how ABB robots that draw fit into the picture.

An Autopen Model 50 signature machine from the International Autopen Company. Photo: Benjamin Olding, International Autopen Company / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

How signatures were copied before the autopen

Before any machine signed for anyone, busy people copied their letters by hand or had clerks do it. In 1803 the British-American inventor John Isaac Hawkins patented the polygraph, a frame of linked rods that moved a second pen exactly as the writer moved the first. Every letter came out twice, one to send and one to keep. Thomas Jefferson used a polygraph extensively during his presidency, and one is still shown at Monticello, his home in Virginia.

A polygraph copying device on a desk at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Virginia. Photo: Henrysz / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Machines that signed without a hand on the pen followed in the 20th century. A 1918 photograph by Harris and Ewing shows a check signing machine at the US Treasury Department, run by an operator named J.L. Summers. In the 1930s a device called the Robot Pen went on sale, storing signatures in a way compared to the grooves of a vinyl record. Then in 1942, after a request from the US Navy, Robert M. De Shazo Jr. built the first commercially successful autopen. A plastic template held the signature as profiles along two axes, and a stylus following it moved a real pen.

A check signing machine at the US Treasury Department, operated by J.L. Summers, 1918. Photo: Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Some sources say Harry Truman was the first, and that he limited it to signing checks and answering mail. In 2005 George W. Bush asked for and received a favourable Justice Department opinion on whether a president could sign bills by autopen, although he did not use it. Barack Obama did in 2011, signing an extension of the Patriot Act by autopen while he was in France, and again in January 2013 for a tax cut extension while on holiday in Hawaii. In May 2024 Joe Biden directed the autopen to sign an extension of FAA funding.

President Harry Truman signing the Housing Act of 1949 by hand, surrounded by officials. Photo: USDA via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Where autopens and handwriting robots work today

Outside politics, the autopen has grown into a business. Handwrytten, a company in Tempe, Arizona, was founded in 2014 by David Wachs, who wanted an easier way to send handwritten notes to staff and clients. It designs and builds its own robots, and its fleet of more than 200 machines holds ordinary ballpoint pens. Fox 10 Phoenix reported that the company mails about 30,000 notes a day. To keep the writing from looking machine made, the robots vary letter shapes, line spacing, the left margin and the strokes that join letters.

An industrial robot writing out the Bible with a pen in robotlab's installation bios, 2007. Photo: Marc Wathieu / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

The autopen has also been in the news. President Donald Trump has questioned the validity of pardons and other documents that Biden signed by autopen, a Republican led House committee investigated the Biden administration's use of the device, and other presidents had used it before. In September 2025 the White House put up a Presidential Walk of Fame, with a photograph of an autopen in place of Biden's portrait. During Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit in late September 2026, Trump showed him that display, which drew wide coverage of the autopen once again.

President Barack Obama signing a letter by hand in the Oval Office, 14 March 2016. Photo: Pete Souza, White House via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

ABB does not make autopens, but several of its robots draw and write in demonstrations, and the motion is much the same. ABB's download center offers a Single-arm YuMi Drawing Demo Kit in which the seven-axis IRB 14050 makes a drawing. In 2022 ABB IRB 5500 paint robots with a PixelPaint head copied artwork onto a Volkswagen SUV in under 30 minutes, with the path planned in RobotStudio. Our post on robot painting and drawing covers that history in detail.

An ABB IRB 5500 paint robot with PixelPaint over Illusorr's finished design on the art car, 2022. Photo: ABB

Where robot handwriting goes next

At home, robot handwriting is mostly a service you order online. Wachs told Fox 10 that parents use Handwrytten to send letters to children at summer camp, typed into a website or app and written out by a robot. Problems start when buyers are not told. In 2022 Bob Dylan apologised after books sold as hand signed for $600 each turned out to carry autopen signatures, and he cited vertigo and the pandemic as the reasons. Earlier, in 2004, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was criticised for using an autopen on condolence letters to the families of soldiers.

A pen held by an industrial robot writing calligraphy on a paper roll in robotlab's bios installation, 2008. Photo: Mirko Tobias Schäfer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

In offices and factories, a pen holder on a cobot such as the single-arm YuMi or the GoFa CRB 15000 could, as a possibility, sign certificates or address envelopes, and simple jobs like that can be set up with no-code programming on the FlexPendant. Following a pen path across a flat sheet is simple for a robot arm. Making many thousands of notes look human, with natural variation and the right pen pressure, is where companies such as Handwrytten put their effort.

Programming a single-arm YuMi with Wizard on the FlexPendant. Photo: ABB

Trust is the harder problem. A signature is supposed to show that a particular person approved a document, so organisations that use autopens need clear records of who authorised each use. Collectors and fans want to know whether an autograph was signed by hand. For handwriting services, price per card and the speed of each robot set what customers pay. ABB cobots like GoFa can be taught by moving the arm by hand, which makes such a cell quick to set up. Deciding when a machine may sign for someone is still up to the people and institutions involved.

Lead-through teaching: moving an ABB GoFa arm by hand. Photo: ABB

Innovation

AI solutions for effortless ABB robot control.

Automation

Robotics

ceojohntran@chatwithrobot.net

+84905311611

© 2025. All rights reserved.

qtran1215@gmail.com