How to sign a PDF online: draw, type or upload your signature

Printing a document, signing it with a pen, scanning it and emailing it back is slow, and the scan rarely looks good. You can sign a PDF online in about a minute instead, or send it to other people and let them sign it from their phone. Here's how both work, and what you should know about electronic signatures.

Sign PDF

Add your signature to a PDF: draw it, type it or upload a picture.

Two different jobs

Before you start, decide which of these you need:

1. You are the one signing. Someone sent you a contract, a form or a permission slip, and you need to add your signature and send it back. Use Sign PDF.
2. Other people need to sign. You've prepared a document and need one or more people to sign it, with a record of who signed and when. Use Request signatures.

How to sign a PDF yourself

1. Open Sign PDF and drop your document on the page. It opens in the PDF editor.
2. Create your signature. You have three options:
   • Draw it with your mouse, trackpad, a pen or your finger on a touch screen. You can choose the ink colour.
   • Type your name and pick a handwriting style.
   • Upload a picture of your signature (PNG, JPG or WebP), for example a photo of your signature on white paper. The background can be removed so it sits cleanly on the page.
3. Place it. Tap or click where the signature goes, then move and resize it until it sits on the line.
4. Add anything else the document asks for: your initials, the date, your printed name or ticks in check boxes.
5. Download the signed PDF.

If you sign documents often, create a free account: you can save your signature and initials to your profile and reuse them instead of drawing them each time.

How to get a PDF signed by others

When you need someone else's signature, sending the PDF and asking them to "sign and send it back" leads to the print-scan loop all over again. A signature request is cleaner:

1. Open Request signatures and upload the PDF. You'll need a free account, because requests and their records are kept there so you can follow them.
2. Add the signers: each person's name and email address.
3. Place their fields. For each signer, choose a field type (signature, initials, date signed, name, text or check box) and click where it goes on the page.
4. Add a message if you like, then send.
5. Each signer gets their own link by email and signs in their browser, without creating an account.
6. Follow the progress in your dashboard: who has opened the document, who has signed, and who hasn't yet. You can send a signer their link again.
7. When everyone has signed, the completed PDF is sent to everyone, and you can download it from your dashboard.

What the audit trail records

The completed document includes audit trail pages. For every signer they record when the document was opened, when the signer agreed to sign electronically and when they signed, along with the IP address and browser they used. They also include a fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) of the original document, which lets anyone check that the document that was signed is the one that was sent.

Are electronic signatures legal?

In many countries, electronic signatures are recognised for most everyday agreements. Examples are the ESIGN Act and UETA in the United States, and the eIDAS regulation in the European Union, which recognises "simple" electronic signatures like the ones described here.

There are important exceptions, though. Depending on where you live, documents such as wills, some real estate transfers, some family law documents and notarised documents may need a handwritten signature, witnesses, a notary or a specific type of certified signature. Some organisations also set their own rules about what they accept.

So for anything important or unusual, check the rules that apply to your document and your country, or ask a lawyer. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Tips for a signature that looks right

• Drawing on a phone usually gives a more natural signature than a mouse.
• When uploading a photo, sign on plain white paper with a dark pen, in good light, and crop close to the signature.
• Keep the signature size realistic. A signature twice the height of the text around it looks odd.
• Check every page. Contracts often ask for initials on each page and a signature on the last one.

After signing

• Need to send it securely? Add a password with Protect PDF.
• Combining a signed contract with its appendices? Use Merge PDF.
• Need to make sure nobody can change form fields afterwards? Flatten PDF turns fields into plain page content.