How to Sign a PDF Electronically

Printing a document, signing it, scanning it back and emailing the result is a ritual that survives out of habit. Signing the PDF directly takes about thirty seconds and produces a cleaner document — and you can sign a PDF electronically for free, in the browser, without Acrobat, an account or an upload.

Sign a PDF electronically for free

To sign a PDF electronically, open it in a signing tool, create your signature by drawing it, typing your name or uploading a picture of it, click where it belongs on the page, and download the signed copy. The signature becomes part of the page, so the recipient sees it in any PDF reader.

1. 1Open the Sign PDF tool and add your document. It is read in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
2. 2Create your signature: draw it with a mouse, trackpad or finger, type your name, or upload an image of your handwritten signature.
3. 3Click the thumbnail of the page you want to sign, then click on the enlarged page where the signature should sit.
4. 4Use the zoom buttons to scale the signature so it fits the line without covering any text.
5. 5Sign and download. To sign another page, pick it and sign again — each pass builds on the copy you have already signed.

The three ways to produce a signature

Drawing with a mouse produces something wobblier than your real signature; a trackpad is better and a touchscreen with a stylus is best. If you sign a lot of documents, photographing your signature once on white paper and reusing the image gives the most consistent result.

Signing on a phone

The same tool works in Safari on an iPhone and Chrome on Android, with no app to install. Load the PDF, draw your signature with your finger, tap the page where it goes and download. Placement is fiddlier on a small screen, so zoom in on the page preview and check the signature sits on the line before you send the file.

What happens to the signature after you sign

The signature is drawn into the page content as an image — not added as a comment or a form field. In practice that means:

• The recipient sees it in any PDF reader, including Preview on a Mac and the viewer built into Chrome.
• It prints, and it survives emailing and re-saving.
• The recipient needs no account and no special software to see it.
• It is not locked: someone determined can still edit the page, which is what a certificate-based digital signature exists to detect.

Signing it locally

A signature is a piece of personal data and the documents you sign are usually contracts. A signing tool that uploads sends both to a third party. One that works in the browser keeps the document and the signature on your own machine — worth caring about for exactly the documents that most often get signed.

Adding a date

Many agreements need a date beside the signature. Type it as text next to the signature rather than assuming a timestamp elsewhere in the file will do — metadata dates are not what a counterparty reads, and they are trivially changed.

Is a free electronic signature legally valid?

For most everyday documents, yes. In the United States, the ESIGN Act and UETA give electronic signatures the same legal effect as handwritten ones for most transactions. In the EU, eIDAS says a simple electronic signature cannot be refused legal effect just because it is electronic. What matters is that you meant to sign — not which software drew the signature.

That is why a free tool is not a weaker signature. A signature drawn in the browser is the same kind of signature as one drawn in a paid subscription; what the paid services add is workflow — audit trails, routing a document between several signers, templates. If you are signing one document and emailing it back, you do not need any of that.

Signature or digital signature?

Placing an image of a signature is an electronic signature: it shows intent to agree, and it is what almost every commercial agreement uses. A digital signature is different — a cryptographic seal that proves the document has not changed since signing. Both are valid; they do different jobs, and the second is only required where a specific regulation says so.