Sign PDF

How to sign a PDF

1. Open the PDF you need to sign. It stays on your device the whole time.
2. Press Create signature and draw it, type your name or upload a photo of your handwriting.
3. Tap each spot where a signature, initials or date belongs, then save the signed PDF.

Three ways to make your signature

The signature window has three tabs, so you can choose whatever feels most natural on the device in your hand:

• Draw with a mouse, a trackpad, a stylus or your finger. The pen smooths your strokes so the result looks like ink rather than a jagged line. Pick black or blue, and press Clear to start again.
• Type your name and choose one of two handwriting-style fonts. This is the quickest option on a laptop and gives a neat, even result.
• Upload a photo or scan of your real signature. Sign a sheet of white paper, snap a picture and turn on Remove white background. The paper disappears and only the ink is placed on the document, so it doesn't look like a pasted rectangle.

Whichever method you use, the signature is kept while this tab is open. You can place it on as many pages as you like without drawing it again, which helps with contracts that ask for a signature on every page.

Initials and dates

Leases, loan papers and employment agreements often want initials at the bottom of each page and a date next to the final signature. Add initials opens the same window in a smaller format, and the initials you make are also reused for the whole session. Add date inserts today's date as ordinary text. Tap it once to select it and tap again to change it, for example to match a date written elsewhere in the document. A plain Text tool is there too, for printing your name under the signature line or filling in a job title.

Placing and adjusting

After you create a signature, tap the spot on the page where it belongs. Drag it to fine-tune the position and pull the round corner handle to make it bigger or smaller; the proportions stay correct. The red button removes an item, and Undo reverses the last change. Use the page arrows or the page menu to move through a long document. Nothing is written into the file until you press Save PDF, so you can experiment freely.

What kind of signature this creates

This tool stamps a picture of your signature onto the page. That is what people usually mean by "signing a PDF": the document looks as if you had printed it, signed it with a pen and scanned it back, without the printer. In many countries, including the United States under the ESIGN Act, electronic signatures like this are generally accepted for everyday agreements, but some documents have stricter rules, and the organization that asked for your signature decides what it accepts. If you've been asked for a certificate-based digital signature (the kind that shows a verified signer and warns if the file changes later), you'll need dedicated signing software, because this page doesn't add one.

Privacy when you sign

Signed documents tend to be the sensitive ones: rental agreements, tax forms, medical consent, offer letters. Here, your PDF is opened and saved by code running inside this browser tab. The file, your signature image and your typed name aren't sent to any server, and nothing is stored after you close the tab. If the finished file should only be opened by one person, you can add a password afterward with Protect PDF.