Sign PDF
Draw a signature with your mouse, stylus or finger, or drop in a scanned one, place it where it belongs on the page and save a signed PDF. The document never leaves your device.
Open the editor →How it works
- Open the PDF and go to the page that needs signing.
- Choose the brush and draw your signature, or insert a photo of one you already have. Add the date and your printed name with the text tool if the form asks for them.
- Position and resize the signature, then download the signed PDF. The mark is written into the page itself.
What this tool does, and what it does not
This is the honest place to start, because the phrase electronic signature covers two very different things and the difference matters. What this tool produces is a visual signature: an image of your handwriting, or typed text, placed on the page and permanently merged into the PDF when you save. It looks exactly like a signature applied to a printed page and scanned back in, because functionally that is what it is.
What it does not produce is a cryptographic digital signature, the kind covered by eIDAS in the European Union, issued by a certificate authority, or applied through a service such as DocuSign or Adobe Sign. Those add an invisible layer to the file: a certificate identifying the signer, a cryptographic hash that reveals any later alteration, and a timestamp from a trusted third party. A PDF signed here contains none of that. There is no certificate, no tamper-evident seal and no audit trail recording who signed, when and from where.
That is a real limitation and you should choose accordingly. Do not use this where an identity-verified signature is a legal requirement: property transfers, notarized documents, court filings, or contracts in which a regulator or the counterparty specifically asks for a qualified electronic signature.
When a visual signature is enough
In everyday practice a great many documents are exchanged and honored with exactly this kind of signature. Under general contract law in most jurisdictions, a signature is a mark made with the intent to be bound, and the form of the mark matters far less than that intent and the evidence surrounding it. A scanned signature on a returned PDF has been the default in business correspondence for two decades.
Cases where this is normal, accepted practice:
The practical test is simple: ask who has to accept the document, and whether they have said anything about the signature format. If the recipient is a colleague, a client, a landlord or a school office, a visual signature is almost always fine. If it is a court, a land registry, a notary, a bank's compliance department or a public procurement portal, ask first, and expect to be told you need a certificate-based signature. None of this is legal advice, and rules differ by country and by document type.
- Internal paperwork: timesheets, expense claims, leave requests, acknowledgment that you have read a policy.
- Onboarding packets and routine HR forms that go back to a colleague rather than to a registry.
- Commercial agreements between parties who already know each other and simply need the file returned today.
- School and university forms, permission slips and applications submitted through a web portal.
- Delivery notes, invoices, quotes and letters, where the signature confirms authorship rather than proving identity.
Getting a signature that looks right
Drawing directly on a touchscreen with a fingertip or stylus gives the most natural result, because your hand moves the way it does on paper. A mouse does not, and mouse-drawn signatures tend to look wobbly and obviously digital. If you are on a desktop and the result is unconvincing, sign a blank sheet of white paper with a black pen, photograph it and insert that image instead. This is also how you reuse one signature across many documents.
A few details separate a document that looks signed from one that looks tampered with. Keep the signature roughly the size a real one would be on paper rather than letting it span the width of the page. Place it on the signature line, not across it. If the form has fields for a printed name, a date or a place, fill them in with the text tool, because an unlabeled squiggle raises more questions than it answers. When a document runs to several pages, check whether the recipient expects initials on each one. And if the copy going out is still a draft rather than the version you mean to be bound by, say so on the page with watermark PDF — a signature on an unmarked page is read as final.
Once saved, the signature is part of the page and cannot be dragged off or edited in an ordinary PDF reader, so keep the unsigned original in case you need to reissue the document. From here you can merge PDF to attach exhibits, add page numbers to PDF before the file goes out for review, or compress PDF if the signed copy is too heavy to email. If what you were sent is a stack of photographed pages rather than a PDF, convert them first with JPG to PDF.
Frequently asked questions
Is a PDF signed here legally binding?
That depends on the document and the jurisdiction, and this tool cannot promise you an answer. What you get is a visual signature, an image merged into the page, with no certificate, no identity verification and no tamper-evident seal. A great many everyday agreements are validly concluded this way. Anything that legally requires a qualified or advanced electronic signature is not. When it matters, ask the recipient what they accept, or use a certificate-based service. This is not legal advice.
How is this different from DocuSign or Adobe Sign?
Those services verify who is signing, bind a certificate to the file, keep an audit trail and can prove the document has not changed since it was signed. This tool does none of that; it places a mark on the page. The trade-off is that nothing about your document, including the fact that it exists, is known to any third party.
Is it free, and do I need an account?
It is free, with no account, no email address and no signature quota. Free tiers elsewhere typically meter you at three to five documents a month; there is no counter here because there is no server keeping one.
Is my document uploaded to a server?
No. The PDF is opened by your browser, the signature is drawn onto the page locally, and the signed file is written back to your device. Nothing is transmitted, so no one, including us, ever has a copy of what you signed.
Can I sign on a phone or tablet?
Yes, and it is the better way to do it. A signature drawn with a finger or a stylus on a touchscreen looks far more natural than anything you can produce with a mouse. Zoom in on the signature line first so the mark lands where it should.
Can I add the date and my printed name as well?
Yes. The text tool types directly onto the page, and non-Latin alphabets are supported: Cyrillic, Greek and accented characters are embedded properly rather than dropped. Use it for the date, a printed name, a job title or a place of signing.
Can I reuse the same signature on other documents?
Yes. Sign a blank sheet of paper once, photograph or scan it, and insert that image whenever you need it. Keep the file somewhere private, since a clean signature image is worth protecting.