Sign PDF

What it's for

Put a picture of your signature on a page of a PDF without printing it, scanning it back in or sending the file to a signing service. Draw the signature with a mouse, pen or finger, type your name in a handwriting font, or open a photo or scan of your real signature, and place it where it goes.

For example, when a landlord sends a lease as a PDF and asks for it back signed, open the lease here, put your signature on the last page next to the date, and save the signed copy to send back.

How to use it

Under Your signature, choose How to make it: Draw it (sign in the box; Undo removes the last stroke, Clear starts again, and Pen width and Colour change the line), Type it (your name in a handwriting script), or Open a picture of it (a photo or scan of your signature on white paper, or a PNG with a clear background; the paper is made transparent). The signature is cropped to its ink and shown under the box.

Then choose the PDF. With two file boxes on the page, drop a picture of your signature on its box and the PDF on the PDF box. Pick the Page to sign; the page is shown with your signature on it. Drag the signature to where it goes. From the keyboard, press Tab until the signature has focus, then use the arrow keys to move it (Shift moves it further) and + and − to make it bigger or smaller; the message line says where it is. Put it on can add it to every page in the same place, for initials. Type a date in Date beside it, or choose Use today’s date, to write it to the right of the signature in Helvetica.

Save the signed PDF downloads name-signed.pdf. The settings for the pen and the colour are remembered.

Example

Choose Type it, type Alex Example, choose a PDF, set Page to 1, and choose Use today’s date. Drag the signature to the bottom right of the page and choose Save the signed PDF: the saved copy has the name in script with the date beside it.

Good to know

This puts a picture of a signature on the page. It is not a digital signature (one made with a certificate that can show the document hasn’t changed since), and it doesn’t make a document legally binding: whether a picture of a signature is accepted depends on the document and the place, so ask the person you’re returning it to. Anyone who has the saved file can copy the picture, so don’t put a signature you use for important documents on files you share widely. Drawing needs a pointer (mouse, pen or finger); the typed and picture options work from the keyboard. Typed signatures use Latin letters only, and the date can’t use other alphabets. The signature is added on top of the page, not into a form field, and an existing digital signature on the PDF no longer checks out afterwards, since the file has changed. Encrypted PDFs can’t be changed. Nothing is uploaded.