How to Sign a PDF Electronically for Free (No Adobe, No Signup)

You have a PDF that needs your signature. You do not have Adobe Acrobat. You do not want to create an account. You need it done in the next two minutes.

Electronic signatures are legally valid in every US state and across the EU. The tool that creates them is irrelevant — what matters is that you signed with intent. Here is how to do it for free, in your browser, without installing anything.

Sign a PDF in under sixty seconds

1. 1Open the Sign PDF tool. Nothing is uploaded — the work happens on your machine.
2. 2Drop your PDF into the tool or click to find it.
3. 3Draw your signature with your mouse or trackpad, type your name and pick a script font, or upload a PNG image of your handwritten signature.
4. 4Click on the document where the signature should go. Drag to position it and use the corners to resize.
5. 5Download the signed PDF. The signature is embedded permanently in the file.

Three ways to create your signature

Are electronic signatures legally valid?

Yes. In the United States, the ESIGN Act and UETA confirm that electronic signatures carry the same legal weight as handwritten ones for virtually all documents. In the EU, eIDAS classifies them as Simple Electronic Signatures, valid for contracts, agreements, and forms.

The key requirement is intent: you must have meant to sign. The software used to create the signature is not a factor. A signature drawn in a free browser tool is the same legal class as one drawn in Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Signing on a phone

The same browser-based tool works on iPhone and Android. Open it in Safari or Chrome, load your PDF, draw your signature with your finger, and download the signed file. The experience is identical to desktop — no app installation needed.

What happens to the signature after you sign

The signature is flattened into the PDF — it becomes part of the page content, like an image printed onto the document. This means:

• The recipient can see it in any PDF reader
• It cannot be moved or edited after download
• It survives printing, emailing, and re-saving
• It does not require the recipient to have any special software

Signing multiple pages or multiple documents

For documents that need your signature on several pages, place it once and note the position. You can then sign the same PDF again on additional pages, or use the tool repeatedly across separate files. There is no limit on how many times you can use a free signing tool.

Why free signing tools are as good as paid ones

The signature is the same regardless of what created it. A rectangle with your name in a script font, placed on the correct line of a PDF, is what the recipient sees whether you used a free tool or a forty-dollar-a-month subscription. The paid tools add workflow features — audit trails, multi-party routing, template libraries — but the signature itself is identical.