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Anautomatic pen, orautopen (informally known as asigning machine), is a mechanical device used for the replicated signing of a humansignature.
Prominent individuals may be asked to provide their signatures many times a day, such as celebrities receiving requests forautographs, or politicians signing documents and correspondence in their official capacities. Consequently, many public figures employ autopens to allow their signature to be printed on demand and without their direct involvement.[1]
Twenty-first-century autopens are machines programmed with a signature subsequently reproduced by a motorized mechanical arm.[2]
Given the similarity to the real hand signature, a use of an autopen allows forplausible deniability as to whether a famous autograph is real or reproduced, thus increasing the perception of the personal value of the signature by the recipient. However, known or suspected autopen signatures are also vastly less valuable asphilographic collectibles; legitimate hand-signed documents from individuals known also to use an autopen usually require verification andprovenance to be considered valid. In 2005, theUnited States Department of Justice responded to an inquiry regarding the use of autopen by the President of the United States, finding its use consistent with the language found in Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution.[3]
Early autopens used a plastic (PMMA)matrix of the original signature, which is a channel cut into an engraved plate in the shape of a wheel. A stylus driven by an electric motor followed thex- and y-axis of aprofile or shape engraved in the plate. The stylus ismechanically connected to an arm which can hold almost any common writing instrument, so that one's pen and ink can be used to suggest authenticity. The autopen signature is made with even pressure and indentation in the paper, which is how these machines are distinguishable from original handwriting where the pressure varies.[4]
The first signature duplicating machines were developed byBritish American inventorJohn Isaac Hawkins, who received a United States patent for his device in 1803, called apolygraph (an abstracted version of thepantograph) in which the user may write with one pen and have their writing simultaneously reproduced by an attached second pen.Thomas Jefferson used the device extensively during his presidency.[1] This device bears little resemblance to today's autopens in design or operation.[5]
The autopen called the Robot Pen was developed in the 1930s, and became commercially available in 1937 to record a signer's signature, used as a storage unit device, similar in principle to how vinyl records store information. A small segment of the record could be removed and stored elsewhere to prevent misuse. The machine would then be able to mass-produce a template signature when needed.[6]
While the Robot Pen was commercially available, the first commercially successful autopen was developed by Robert M. De Shazo Jr., in 1942.[7] De Shazo developed the technology that became the modern autopen in reference to a Request For Quote (RFQ) from the Navy, and in 1942, received an order for the machine from theUnited States Secretary of the Navy.[2] This was the beginning of a significant market in government for the autopen, as the machines soon ended up in the offices of members of Congress, the Senate and the Executive branches. At one point, De Shazo estimated there were more than 500 autopens in use in Washington, D.C.[8]
Individuals who use autopens often do not disclose this publicly. Signatures generated by machines are valued less than those created manually, and perceived by their recipients as somewhat inauthentic.[9] In 2004,Donald Rumsfeld, then theU.S. Secretary of Defense, incurred criticism after it was discovered that his office used an autopen to sign letters of condolence to families of American soldiers who were killed in war.[10]
Outside of politics, it was reported in November 2022 that some copies ofThe Philosophy of Modern Song, a book by singer-songwriterBob Dylan that had been published earlier that month, had been signed with an autopen, resulting in criticism. Autographed editions had been marketed as "hand-signed" and priced at US$600 each. Both Dylan and the book's publisher,Simon & Schuster, issued apologies; refunds were also offered to customers who had bought autopen-signed editions.[11] In addition, Dylan also said that some prints of his artwork sold after 2019 had been signed with an autopen, which he further apologized for and attributed his use of the machine tovertigo and theCOVID-19 pandemic, the latter of which prevented him from meeting with staff to facilitate signing the works in question.[12]
A precursor to the autopen was an instrument called thepolygraph (unrelated to themodern device of the same name). While a person using the polygraph wrote an original document on one side of the machine, the device would mechanically facsimile a copy on the opposite side. When PresidentThomas Jefferson discovered the device, he purchased two: one for the White House, and one for his home atMonticello. Although the device could only make copies at the same time that a user was creating an original, a fully automated version was invented in the 1930s. According toNational Journal, some sources say thatHarry S. Truman was the first U.S. president to use an autopen, though he limited his use of it to signing checks and answering mail. The first confirmed president to sign legislation with it wasBarack Obama.[13] Others creditGerald Ford as the first president to openly acknowledge his use of the autopen.[14]
While visiting France,Barack Obama authorized the use of an autopen to create his signature, signing into law an extension of three provisions of thePatriot Act.[15] On January 3, 2013, he signed the extension to theBush tax cuts, using the autopen while vacationing in Hawaii.[16] In order to sign it by the required deadline, his other alternative would have been to have had the bill flown to him overnight.[17] Republican leaders questioned whether this use of the autopen met the constitutional requirement for signing a bill into law,[18] but the validity of presidential use of an autopen had not been actually tested in court.[19] In 2005, George W. Bush asked for and received a favorable opinion from the Department of Justice regarding the constitutionality of using the autopen, but did not use it.[20][21][22]
In May 2024,Joe Biden directed an autopen be used to sign legislation providing a one-week funding extension for theFederal Aviation Administration. Biden was traveling inSan Francisco at the time, and wished to avoid any lapse in FAA operations, while a five-year funding bill was being voted on by Congress.[23]
In March 2025,Donald Trump, while admitting that he sometimes uses an autopen,[24] said that pardons for members of theJanuary 6th Committee issued during Biden's presidency were void due to them allegedly being signed by autopen. Earlier in 2024, theFourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that pardons do not have to be made in writing inRosemond v. Hudgins.[25][26] The following May, theHouse Oversight Committee, led by Republican RepresentativeJames Comer, announced an investigation intoBiden's health and mental fitness during his presidency, focusing specifically on Biden's use of an autopen.[27][28]
In September 2025, Trump unveiled a sequence of portraits of serving and past presidents of the United States, in which Biden's portrait was replaced by a photograph of an autopen signing his name.[29] In October 2025, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee claimed that Biden's autopen pardons were invalid because of autopen use, and called for the Department of Justice to open a new investigation into the Biden administration.[30] On November 28, 2025, Trump made a post onTruth Social claiming that he had declared "any document" signed by Biden via autopen to be void because the device had been used "illegally" without his involvement, and stated that Biden would be charged withperjury if he claimed otherwise. It is unclear whether Trump has the legal authority to do so.[31][32]
Further developing the class of devices known as autopens, Canadian authorMargaret Atwood invented a device called theLongPen, which allows audio and video conversation between the fan and author while a book is being signed remotely.[33]