How to Add a Handwritten Signature to a PDF

A handwritten signature on a document signals that a person considered it and agreed. Getting one onto a PDF without a printer takes one of three routes, each suited to a different situation.

Draw it

Best on a touchscreen, acceptable on a trackpad, poor with a mouse. Draw slowly and larger than you would on paper — the signature is scaled down when it is placed, and scaling down hides unsteadiness while scaling up exposes it.

Photograph your real signature

1. 1Sign a clean sheet of white paper with a black pen. Sign several times and pick the best.
2. 2Photograph it straight on, in even daylight, with no shadow across the page.
3. 3Crop tightly to the signature.
4. 4Upload it as your signature image.

This gives the most faithful result and is reusable indefinitely. Keep the file somewhere private — it is a copy of your signature, and it can be lifted from any document you send.

Have your typed name rendered as handwriting

You type your name and it is drawn in a handwriting face rather than a block font. It is quick, it is legible, and for routine internal approvals it is entirely adequate. It is not your handwriting, and for a document that may be scrutinised a drawn or photographed signature carries more weight.

Placing it well

• Sit it on the signature line, not floating above or crossing it.
• Scale it to roughly the height of two lines of body text — larger reads as shouting.
• Keep it in black. Blue is common on paper and can look like a scanning artefact on screen.
• Add the date beside it if the document has a date field.
• Leave clear space around it so it does not collide with anything.

Keep the signature image safe

Anyone who receives a signed PDF can crop your signature out of it and place it on another document. That is true of paper too, and it is a reason to sign only what you have read, and to prefer a digital signature where the integrity of the document genuinely matters.