Do I have to sign a recommendation letter that will be submitted online? I am a lecturer at a public university in Bangladesh. I am going to give recommendations for students from my class who are going to apply for graduate admission to some US universities. These letters will be submitted online.

My problem is related to the signature. Please check the my recommendation style: I have written my name as a recommender. Is it essential that I also sign the recommendation?


  To who it may concern,
  
  [actual letter]
  
  Regards, 
  
  Maria S. Sultana
  
  **** University 
  
  email: ****
  
  mob: **** 


I am talking about a signature like this (below red marked): I will upload a letter in the style of that shown below in the (online) recommendation  form.  Is it necessary to put a signature on a letter, like the one I have marked below?
Personally, I always sign my recommendation letters, including the ones submitted electronically.  In fact, I'm not sure I've ever submitted a physical recommendation letter.

I do this for two reasons:


In the United States, at least, it is still quite strongly the custom for such letters to be signed.
It at least proves that the person writing the letter has access to a copy of my signature.


Now, both of these might be a bit archaic in our modern networked world, but the customs haven't really shifted yet, and until they do, it's good to keep doing it the way that will be expected by many recipients.

That said, you certainly don't need to go through the hassle of printing, physically signing, and scanning: if you have a high-resolution image of your signature, you can affix that as an image in the appropriate part of your document.  Some word processors or PDF editors will also allow you to "digitally sign" and associate this with some form of cryptographic signature.

In short: sign your letter, but do it the easy and electronic way if you can.