A Florida land surveyor's seal must be one of five seal forms the Board approves, numbered I through V, and the one that applies depends on your licensure vintage or a temporary certificate. Your name and PSM number are carried inside the approved form. Final plats, plans, drawings, specifications and reports take a signature, a date and the seal. This page covers the forms, the devices and electronic sealing.
Engineer Seal Stamps compliance desk. Checked against Fla. Admin. Code r. 5J-17.060(1) to (7) and the Board of Professional Surveyors and Mappers. Sources read September 2026.
| Requirement | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Final plats, plans, drawings, specifications and reports that are prepared or issued under the board's standards of practice. | Fla. Stat. § 472.025(1), (3) |
| Seal form | Any one of the forms the Board approves, printed in the rule as figures and numbered I through V. | Fla. Admin. Code r. 5J-17.060(1) to (7) |
| Which form applies | Whichever form matches your licensure vintage, or the form provided for a temporary certificate. | Fla. Admin. Code r. 5J-17.060, subsections (1) to (7) |
| Name and number | Your name and PSM number as carried in the approved form. | Fla. Admin. Code r. 5J-17.060(1) to (7) |
| Diameter | Not addressed. The rule prescribes five seal forms as figures and states no diameter. | Fla. Admin. Code r. 5J-17.060 (silent) |
| Shape | Not stated. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
| Devices on paper | An impression or an ink stamp. A computer generated representation is allowed too, but only where the stated conditions are met. | Fla. Admin. Code r. 5J-17.060(1) and r. 5J-17.062(2) |
| Signature and date | Your signature, the date and the seal. A computer generated seal also has to carry a specified sentence alongside it. | Fla. Stat. § 472.025(1) |
| Electronic seals | An electronic signature has the same force as an original one. The rule then imposes four tests, with an alternative route. | Fla. Admin. Code r. 5J-17.062 |
| Sealing after a lapse | Stamping, sealing or digitally signing is unlawful once a certificate of registration has lapsed, been revoked or been suspended, until it is reinstated or reissued. | Fla. Stat. § 472.025(2) |
Florida is one row in our land surveyor seal requirements by state table, which sets each jurisdiction's rule side by side. Not yet licensed? The land surveyor licensing path by state lays out the steps Florida requires first.
What must a Florida surveyor's seal show?
Whatever the approved form you are entitled to use carries, which is your name and your PSM number in the layout the rule prints. Rule 5J-17.060 works through the forms in subsections (1) to (7) as figures rather than as a written list of elements.
That matters when you order. You are not assembling a seal from a set of required items; you are reproducing a prescribed figure with your own details in it. Our page on Florida surveyor seal requirements and usage shows how the figures translate into artwork.
Which of the five forms applies to you?
The one that matches your licensure vintage, or the form set aside for a temporary certificate if that is what you hold. The rule numbers the forms I through V precisely so that surveyors licensed under different generations of the law use the right one.
Copying a colleague's seal artwork is the common way this goes wrong, because the colleague may sit in a different vintage. Read the subsection that describes your own position and take the figure from there, then keep a note of which form number you used for the next reorder. We go through the selection in meeting the Florida seal requirements step by step.
What size must a Florida surveyor seal be?
No diameter is stated anywhere. Rule 5J-17.060 prescribes the five seal forms as figures and gives no dimension, and section 472.025 of the statute gives none either.
That silence was checked right across rule 5J-17.060, then across the electronic sealing rule at 5J-17.062, and then in the statute section, so it is a genuine absence rather than a gap in the reading. Size for legibility of the name and PSM number at the scale your sheets are printed, and keep the proportions of the printed figure intact when you scale it. Sizing choices are covered further in our closer read of the Florida stamp requirements.
Which devices may you use on paper?
An impression or an ink stamp. A computer generated representation of the seal is also allowed, but only where the conditions in the rules are met rather than as an open substitute.
Read that as two settled options and one conditional one. An embosser and a rubber stamp need no extra justification on a paper document; a plotted or printed seal image brings the electronic sealing provisions into play.
How do the signature, date and seal fit together?
All three appear on the final document. Section 472.025(1) pairs the seal with a signature and a date, and it adds a requirement specific to computer generated seals: a set sentence has to travel with the seal.
So the answer depends on how the seal was produced. A pressed or stamped seal needs your signature and the date beside it; a computer generated one needs that plus the prescribed wording accompanying it on the document.
Which documents must be sealed?
Final plats, plans, drawings, specifications and reports, where they are prepared or issued under the board's standards of practice. Section 472.025(1) and (3) set that duty and tie it to the standards rather than to a document title.
The phrase prepared or issued does real work. A document you did not draft but issue as your own professional product falls inside the duty just as a drawing you produced yourself does.
How does electronic sealing work in Florida?
An electronic signature has the same force as an original signature on paper. Rule 5J-17.062 then imposes four tests on it, with an alternative route beside them.
Because the rule offers an alternative rather than one mandated product, two surveyors can comply by different means. Confirm which route your software takes before you rely on it for a filed submittal, and keep the evidence of that route with the project record. More context sits in the Florida stamp guidelines for surveyors.
What happens when the certificate of registration lapses?
Sealing stops, and the prohibition is written to cover digital work as well. Section 472.025(2) makes it unlawful to stamp, seal or digitally sign once a certificate of registration has expired, been revoked or been suspended, until it is reinstated or reissued.
Naming the digital signature alongside the physical seal is a deliberate choice by the legislature, and it is not true of the older statutes in several other states. A Florida surveyor whose certificate lapses cannot fall back on the argument that an electronic signature is something other than a seal.
What should you supply when ordering a Florida seal?
Your name as licensed, your PSM number, the form number you are entitled to use, and the device you want. Confirm the form number before artwork is drawn rather than after.
If you hold a temporary certificate, say so at the point of order, because the rule sets aside a form for that situation. Our article on the Florida seal guidelines in fuller detail covers the ordering questions in order.
How do you check the seal before you use it?
Lay the proof beside the figure in the rule and compare them element by element, then press or print a test on the media you deliver and read the name and PSM number at normal viewing distance.
Verify the number against your license record rather than against a previous order, since a transposed digit survives every visual check that does not involve the source document. For a computer generated seal, confirm the accompanying sentence prints with it every time, not just in the file you tested.
Frequently asked questions
Can you pick whichever of the five forms you prefer?
No. The form follows your licensure vintage or your temporary certificate, so the choice is determined by your own position rather than by preference or appearance.
Is there a legal minimum diameter for a Florida surveyor seal?
None is published. The rule prescribes the seal as a figure and states no dimension, which leaves legibility as the working constraint.
Does a plotted seal on a drawing count as a computer generated seal?
A computer generated representation is allowed only under the conditions the rules set, and section 472.025(1) attaches a required sentence to a computer generated seal. Treat a plotted seal as falling inside those provisions.
Does an electronic signature need to be notarized to carry weight?
The rule gives an electronic signature the same weight as an original signature once its four tests are met, or once the alternative route is satisfied. Nothing in the cited provisions adds a notarial step.
What happens to documents sealed before a suspension?
Section 472.025(2) addresses the act of sealing while the certificate is not in force. Work properly sealed while the certificate was valid is a separate question from sealing done after it lapsed.
Do you need both an embosser and an ink stamp?
The rule accepts an impression or an ink stamp, so one device is enough on paper. Surveyors who deliver both originals and copies often keep both because an embossed impression can fade out of a scan.
Once you have confirmed which approved form applies to you, put the artwork into production. Start from the Florida surveyor seals and stamps we make and send your name, PSM number and form number together.
