Why sign a PDF online?
Printing a document just to sign it and scan it back in is slow, and the result often looks worse than the original. This tool lets you add a real signature - drawn with your mouse or finger, typed in a handwriting-style font, or a photo of your own signature - directly onto the PDF, without leaving your browser.
How the viewing and placement actually works
Your PDF renders directly in your browser using a genuine PDF rendering engine, the same technology behind browser-native PDF viewing, so you see your actual document exactly as it looks before any signature is added. Drawing, typing, or uploading your signature all happen locally in your browser as well - none of that interaction touches our server. Only once you're satisfied with the placement and click to finalize does the document upload, get stamped with your signature, and come back as the finished file.
Three ways to create your signature
- Draw it - using your mouse, finger, or a stylus, directly on a canvas that captures your actual handwriting motion.
- Type it - enter your name and it renders in a handwriting-style font, a quick option when a drawn signature isn't practical on your current device.
- Upload a photo - a photo of your real signature on paper, which gets placed onto the document the same way a drawn one would.
Is this a legally binding signature?
This tool places an image of your signature onto the page, the same as signing a printout and scanning it back in. Whether that's sufficient for a given document depends on what you're signing and where you are - for anything with legal weight, check what your situation requires.
Who actually needs this, and why
Anyone who needs to sign a contract, form, or agreement sent to them as a PDF without printing, physically signing, and rescanning it. Freelancers and small business owners signing client agreements quickly without dedicated e-signature software. Students and professionals adding a signature to a form that specifically requires one, directly from their phone or laptop.
Is this safe?
Your document is only uploaded to our server at the final step, to stamp your signature onto it - everything before that (viewing your PDF, drawing or typing your signature) happens entirely in your browser. The file is processed and then removed from our server automatically afterward.
Privacy
Your document is processed on our servers over an encrypted connection only for the final signing step, and deleted automatically shortly after. There's no account required and no watermark added to the result.
Signing more than one page
This tool is built around placing one signature on one page per run, which covers the common case of signing a single signature line on a document. For a document that needs your signature on several different pages, running the tool again on the already-signed result for each additional page lets you build up multiple signatures across a multi-page document one placement at a time.
Getting a signature that looks like your real one
If you're drawing your signature with a mouse rather than a finger or stylus, the result can look noticeably different from your natural handwriting, since a mouse doesn't capture the same fluid motion a pen or finger does. For a signature that needs to closely resemble your actual handwritten one, uploading a photo of your signature on paper - signed normally with a pen - generally produces a more authentic-looking result than drawing with a mouse.
Resizing and repositioning before you finalize
Once placed, your signature can be dragged to a different position or resized using the handle at its corner, giving you full control to match exactly where a document's signature line or signing block expects it, rather than being stuck with wherever it initially landed when first added to the page.
When you need something more than a simple signature image
This tool is built for the common, everyday case of adding your signature to a document - a form, an agreement, a letter. For documents that require a formal digital signature with cryptographic verification, timestamping, and identity certification, that's a fundamentally different technology from placing a signature image, and would need a dedicated digital signature service designed specifically for that stronger legal requirement.
Protecting your signed document afterward
Once your document is signed, if you also want to prevent it from being edited further or want to add password protection before sending it on, our Protect PDF tool can lock the signed file with a password as a separate next step, keeping the signature and the rest of the content exactly as they are while adding that extra layer of access control on top.
Checking your signed document before sending it
Before sending a signed PDF on to whoever needs it, it's worth a quick scroll through to confirm the signature sits exactly where expected, is sized appropriately relative to the surrounding text, and that the rest of the document's content remains completely unchanged from the original - a simple check that takes only a moment but catches any placement issue before it reaches someone else who's expecting a properly completed, signed document.
A quick note on consistency across multiple documents
If you're signing several different documents and want your signature to look the same every time, uploading a single saved photo of your real signature, rather than redrawing it fresh each time, guarantees visual consistency across every document you sign going forward - a drawn signature can vary slightly from attempt to attempt depending on how carefully you draw it, while a saved photo stays identical no matter how many times you reuse it.
Why browser-based rendering matters for trust
Because your document renders and your signature gets drawn entirely within your own browser before anything uploads, you can see exactly what the finished result will look like before committing to it - there's no uncertainty about how a server-side process might interpret your placement, since what you see while positioning the signature is precisely what gets applied to the final document once you confirm it.