A PKI certificate is a type of digital certificate which follows the basic requirements and standards used to create digital signatures. You will need a certificate authority system in order to generate digital certificates containing digital signatures. There are two types of certificates you will need to create for each user. You will need one certificate for the use, which should contain their digital signature as well as a private key. The other certificate you will need will contain the user’s public key.
How Does a PKI Certificate Work to Encrypt and Decrypt Digital Signatures?
The easiest way to think about how a PKI certificate works is to picture a lock. The user has a private key which is used to encrypt their signature whenever they attach it electronically. Once encrypted, it locks the file, which cannot be opened unless you have the correct key to unlock it. The key you need to unlock and decrypt the file is called the public key. The public key will read the file and check to make sure that it matches the private key. As long as they match the key will open the file, just like you would use a key to open a lock.