Sign a PDF

How to use it#

1. Drop the PDF onto the box above, or click it to choose one.
2. Choose Draw, Type, or Image, and make your signature. A typed name can be in one of three handwriting styles, or plain Helvetica or Times. Pick black or blue ink.
3. If the document asks for initials, switch from Signature to Initials and make them the same way. Each keeps its own drawing, name, or picture.
4. Go to the right page and, beside Place, press Signature or Initials, or double tap the spot for whichever you are making. Initials on every page puts your initials on each page that has none yet, and Date adds the date in the format you chose.
5. Drag each box into position or take a corner to resize it, then download. Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V copies the selected one, Backspace removes it, Clear removes them all, and Undo puts back the last change.

Your signature is the part to be careful with#

A document you are signing is usually one you would rather not hand around: a lease, an offer letter, a contract with figures in it. The signature is worse. Once a copy of it exists somewhere you do not control, you cannot know where else it ends up, and it is exactly the thing a forger would want.

Here the document, your signature, and the finished file all stay in this tab. A drawn signature, a typed name, and an uploaded picture are all put on the page right here, never sent anywhere, and forgotten when you close it. Even the handwriting fonts come from this site, so typing your name contacts nobody else. There is no account to create, because there is nothing to store.

Drawn, typed, or a picture of your signature#

Drawing gives the most personal result. A finger on a phone is closest to holding a pen; on a laptop, a trackpad works better than a mouse if you draw slowly. Draw it larger than it will appear, since it is scaled down onto the page and small wobbles disappear. Undo stroke takes back the last line without losing the rest, and also brings back a signature cleared by mistake.

Typing your name is quickest, and it is what many people use for everyday forms. Flowing, Formal, and Casual are three handwriting fonts, and the preview shows exactly what will be placed. Helvetica and Times print your name the way a form typed on a computer shows it. They go into the file as real text rather than a picture, so the name stays sharp at any zoom and can be selected and searched like the rest of the document. They only have the Western European letters, so a name with a letter such as Ł needs one of the handwriting styles.

A picture is best when you already have a signature you like on paper. Sign a sheet of white paper with a dark pen, photograph or scan it in good light, and drop it in. A photo straight from an iPhone, saved as HEIC, works as well. A PNG with a transparent background is used as it is. A JPG, or any picture with no transparency, has its white background taken out, so the page shows through around the ink; untick Remove a white background if the picture is already what you want. The picture is cropped to the signature either way.

What kind of signature this is#

This adds your signature to the page, as a picture or as typed text, which is what most people mean by signing a PDF and what most forms, leases, and everyday agreements ask for. In law it is usually called a simple electronic signature, and in many countries it carries the same weight as a pen on paper for ordinary contracts.

It is not a certificate based digital signature, the kind that proves cryptographically who signed and that nothing changed afterwards. Some documents need exactly that: certain government filings, some regulated financial and property transactions, and anything that says it must be signed with a qualified or certified signature. If the document asks for one, a signature added like this will not satisfy it.

Initials and dates on every page#

Contracts often want initials on each page, a full signature at the end, and a date beside it. Make your signature, then switch to Initials and make those too, drawn, typed, or from a picture, whichever suits. The two are separate marks: signature boxes show your signature and initials boxes show your initials, so both go on the same document in one pass.

Initials on every page puts a set of initials on every page that has none yet. If you have already placed initials on the page you are looking at, each copy goes in the same spot on its own page; otherwise they go in the bottom right corner, clear of a centred page number. Every copy is its own box, so any one can be moved, resized, or removed, and one Undo takes them all back.

Every box is independent, so each can be positioned and sized to fit its own space, and the list under the page has a Remove for each and a Clear for all of them. Undo takes back the last change, whether that was a move, a resize, a removal, or a Clear.

The date is written as real text, in the ink you chose and the format you picked. Written out as 24 September 2026, it cannot be misread anywhere. As numbers, it can put the day or the month first, whichever the document expects, or the year first, as 2026-09-24. Changing the date or its format changes every date already placed.

Everything is drawn on top of the page rather than merged into it, so the text of the document is left exactly as it was and stays selectable. To type other words onto the page, such as your name in print or an address, add text to the PDF first, and for a form with boxes to click into, fill in the form.