By the way, I renewed my passport in the fall, and the kid in front of me got his first one. He signed it with a gel pen (they give you one there) and walked out... then he came back, opened his passport, and asked, "What do I do?"... He basically closed the passport, and the gel ink smeared, and his whole signature was messed up. Haha.
I took that into account and went with my passport open.