California landscape architects must sign, date and seal the plans, specifications and other instruments of service they prepare for others. The device is circular and measures between one and two inches in diameter. Its face carries your name, your license number, two fixed legends, a signature line, your license renewal date and the date of sealing. This page works through each rule and names the provision behind it.
Engineer Seal Stamps compliance desk. Checked against Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 5659. Sources read September 2026.
| Requirement | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal or stamp required | Yes. The licensee signs, dates and seals. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 5659, 5673 |
| Name and license number | Your name as licensed and your license number both appear on the device. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 5659 |
| Legends | Two of them: licensed landscape architect, and State of California. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 5659 |
| Means of signing | The device has to provide a way for a signature to be applied. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 5659 |
| License renewal date | Required content, and it moves with each renewal cycle. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 5659 |
| Date of signing | The date of signing and sealing or stamping is also required content. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 5659 |
| Size and shape | A circle. The diameter falls between one inch and two inches. | Cal. Code Regs. tit. 16, § 2606 |
| Device type | Not restricted by name. Section 2606 lets you buy the stamp from any convenient source. | Cal. Code Regs. tit. 16, § 2606 |
| Documents that carry the seal | Every plan, specification and other instrument of service you prepare for others. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 5659 |
| Electronic or digital seal | Not addressed anywhere in the cited provisions. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 5659 and Cal. Code Regs. tit. 16, § 2606 |
California is one row in our landscape architect seal requirements by state table, which sets each jurisdiction's rule side by side.
Does California require a stamp for landscape architects?
Yes. Business and Professions Code section 5659 puts the duty on the individual licensee: sign, date and seal the plans, specifications and other instruments of service you prepare for others. Section 5673 is cited with it for that same duty.
The physical description of the device sits in the regulations rather than the statute. California Code of Regulations title 16, section 2606 fixes the diameter and leaves the purchase to you. Our page on California landscape architectural seal requirements walks the same provisions item by item.
What has to appear on the face of the stamp?
Section 5659 names seven items for the face: the words State of California; the legend licensed landscape architect; your name as licensed; your license number; the renewal date carried on your license; the date you sign and seal; and a means of providing a signature.
Four of those are fixed text and three are not. The two legends, your name and your number are engraved once and never change. The signature, the renewal date and the signing date are written in at the time of use, so the layout has to leave open space for all three rather than engraved values.
How large is a California landscape architect stamp?
Title 16, section 2606 states both ends of the range: the device measures between one and two inches in diameter. A stamp smaller than an inch or wider than two inches sits outside that rule, and the shape is a circle.
Content decides where inside the range you land. Seven items, three of them written in by hand, crowd a one inch face, so most working devices are ordered closer to the upper end where the fill-in lines stay legible.
Which devices are allowed?
The cited rules do not restrict the device type by name. Section 2606 lets the stamp be purchased from any convenient source, so an inked hand stamp, a self-inking model or an embosser each satisfy a rule that names none of them specifically.
Pick the format by how the impression has to reproduce. Ink survives photocopying, scanning and microfilm; a blind embossed impression often does not. The formats are compared in our rundown of California landscape architect professional stamps.
Why does the stamp carry two different dates?
Section 5659 names both, and they mean different things. One is the renewal date of your license. The other is the date of signing and sealing or stamping, which belongs to the individual sheet in front of you.
Because the renewal date is part of the required content, the device has to accommodate a value that changes every cycle. Ordering it as an open line keeps the same device usable across renewals; engraving a date into the die does not.
How do the signature, the date and the seal work together?
Sections 5659 and 5673 are cited together for one instruction: sign, date and seal. All three go on the document, and the device itself has to carry the means of providing a signature along with the signing date.
That is why a California landscape architect device reads more like a block than a plain ring of text. For a longer walkthrough of the layout, see our guide to the California landscape architect seal.
Which documents need the seal?
Every plan, specification and other instrument of service you prepare for others, under section 5659. The trigger is the character of the document and the fact that it was prepared for someone else, not the sheet size or the delivery format.
Do the cited rules cover electronic or digital seals?
Not addressed. The two provisions that fix the content and the diameter, Business and Professions Code section 5659 and title 16, section 2606, refer to no electronic stamp, no digital stamp and no electronic signature. No digital sealing rule is published alongside them for this credential.
Read that silence as silence. The provisions above fix the content and the diameter of a physical device, and they state nothing at all about an electronic version of it.
What happens to the device at renewal, and after a lapse?
Renewal touches the face because the renewal date is required content, which is the practical reason to keep that date as a fill-in line. Use of the device after a license lapses is not addressed in the provisions read here.
Nothing in section 5659 or section 2606 directs a landscape architect to destroy, surrender or hold a device once a license is no longer current. The rules describe what a compliant device carries, and stop there.
What should I have ready when ordering?
Three inputs: your name exactly as the license shows it, your license number, and a diameter inside the one to two inch range. Both legends and the three fill-in lines are standard content on a California landscape architect device.
Proof the name character by character, including middle initials and suffixes, because that line is engraved and a correction means a new die. Our article on obtaining a California landscape architect stamp covers the ordering sequence.
How do I check an impression before using it?
Take one test impression on plain white paper and read it against section 5659 item by item: both legends, your name, your number, and clear space for the signature, the renewal date and the signing date. Then measure the circle.
Finish with a reproduction check. Photocopy the test sheet and scan it at the resolution your clients use, then confirm every character still reads. An impression that fails that test will fail on a submittal set too.
Frequently asked questions
Is a one inch device large enough to comply?
One inch is the floor stated in title 16, section 2606, so a device at that diameter meets the rule. Legibility is the practical limit rather than the legal one, since seven items and three written entries have to fit.
Can the renewal date be engraved into the die instead of written in?
The renewal date is required content that changes at each renewal, so a die with a fixed date stops matching your license once the cycle turns. An open line for that date keeps the same device correct after renewal.
Which provision governs size, and which governs content?
Title 16, section 2606 governs the diameter and the purchase of the device. Business and Professions Code section 5659 governs what the face carries and the duty to sign, date and seal, with section 5673 cited alongside it.
Do the cited rules recognize an electronic version of this seal?
No. Neither cited provision refers to an electronic stamp, a digital stamp or an electronic signature, and no separate digital sealing rule exists for California landscape architects.
Do the rules say what to do with the device after a license lapses?
They do not. The cited provisions set no destruction, surrender or storage requirement for a landscape architect device once the license is no longer current.
Does a single sheet exhibit need the same content as a full plan set?
The required content of the device does not change with the document. If the item is a plan, a specification or another instrument of service prepared for others, section 5659 asks for the same signature, date and seal.
Have your name and license number confirmed, then choose a diameter and order from our California stamps and seals collection.
