Sign a PDF online free

Sign a PDF online free by dropping it here: choose Signature on the toolbar, draw your signature with a mouse, trackpad or finger, place it on the signature line, and press Download. The signed copy is written in your browser; the document is never uploaded to a server.

How to sign a PDF in three clicks

1. Drop the contract, form or letter here, or click Open a PDF.
2. Click Signature on the toolbar and draw your signature in the box. A trackpad works; a finger on a phone or tablet works better.
3. Place the signature on the page where the line is. Need it on several pages? Go to each page with the thumbnails sidebar and place it again.
4. Add the date or your printed name next to it with the Text tool.
5. Press Download. Send the new file; the unsigned original stays on your disk.

No printing, no scanning, no photo of a sheet of paper. The whole thing is shorter than finding the printer.

What kind of signature this is

The viewer places a drawn signature: an image of your handwriting embedded in the PDF. It is the same thing you would get from Preview's signature tool or Acrobat Reader's Fill & Sign. It is not a certificate-based digital signature. There is no cryptographic certificate, no identity check and no tamper seal.

For most everyday documents (lease addenda, permission slips, offer letters, freelance agreements) a drawn signature is what the other side expects. If the other party requires a certified e-signature with an audit trail, they will usually send the document through a service built for that, and you sign inside that service rather than here. If you are unsure, ask the recipient which they need before signing.

How the signature looks in Acrobat, Preview and Chrome

Download embeds the signature with pdf-lib, so it is part of the PDF. Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview on a Mac, Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Google Drive's preview and phone readers all show it at the spot you placed it, and it prints. Nobody receiving the file needs this site or any plug-in.

Because it is saved in the file, you can forward the signed PDF by email, upload it to a portal or attach it to a chat as it is.

Signing on a phone, iPad or Mac

The viewer runs in Safari and Chrome on iPhone, iPad and Android, which is the easiest way to get a natural-looking signature: draw it with your finger or a stylus. Open the PDF from Mail or Files in the browser, sign, download, share. The sign a PDF without printing guide covers the whole email-to-reply loop.

On a Mac you can use this viewer or Preview; the add a signature to a PDF on Mac page compares the two. On Windows and Chromebooks the browser is the simplest route since there is nothing to install. A practical trick when your trackpad signature looks shaky: sign on your phone, where a finger gives a natural stroke, and download the signed copy from there.

Limits and gotchas when signing

• Password-protected PDFs that ask for a password to open will not open here. Many signed contracts are sent this way; ask the sender for an unlocked copy or remove the password elsewhere first.
• Restricted PDFs (open fine, but editing is locked) can be freed with Remove Restrictions before signing.
• Signature fields in forms are shown but not active as fields. Place the drawn signature on top of the field; it displays the same.
• Not a certificate. If a counterparty's system validates digital signatures, a drawn signature will not pass that check.
• Check placement before downloading. Eraser removes a misplaced signature; Ctrl+Z undoes the last step.

Other ways to sign a PDF

• Adobe Acrobat Reader: Fill & Sign draws or types a signature and stores it for reuse; free.
• Preview on macOS: Markup's Sign tool captures a signature from the trackpad or the camera and saves it in the Mac.
• Microsoft Edge: draw with the pen tool over the signature line; no stored signature.
• Chrome: the viewer's annotation pen can draw a signature on desktop.
• Google Drive: the preview has no signing tool; open the file in another app.
• Xodo, PDF-XChange Editor: signature tools with stored signatures and stamps.
• Smallpdf, iLovePDF: online signing that uploads the document to their servers; fine for public forms, less so for confidential contracts.

Frequently asked questions