Add your signature to any PDF document
Add your signature to a PDF without printing anything. Upload the document and an image of your signature, position it where it belongs, and download the signed file. Free, takes under a minute, and replaces the print-sign-scan cycle entirely.
The traditional route for signing a document you received by email is genuinely absurd when you lay it out: print the file onto paper, sign the paper with a pen, find a scanner, scan it back into a computer, and email the result. Four steps, two devices, and roughly fifteen minutes to add a few square centimetres of ink.
The scanned result is also usually worse than the original — slightly skewed, larger in file size, and with the crisp text of the original replaced by a photograph of printed text. Signing digitally skips all of it and produces a cleaner document.
The quality of your signature image determines how professional the signed document looks, and it is worth spending five minutes getting this right once since you will reuse the file indefinitely.
Sign on plain white paper with a dark pen — black or dark blue. Avoid lined or coloured paper, which shows in the image.
Sign larger than usual. A big signature scaled down looks smooth; a small one scaled up looks pixelated.
Photograph or scan in even light. Direct overhead light casts a shadow from your phone; light from a window to one side works much better. Hold the camera parallel to the paper so the signature is not distorted.
A transparent PNG is ideal. With a transparent background the signature sits naturally on the page instead of appearing inside a white rectangle that covers the line beneath it. If you have image editing software, removing the white background once is worth the effort.
Size is what people most often get wrong. A signature dropped in at its native scale is frequently far too large, dominating the page in a way a pen signature never would. Scale it so it sits comfortably on the signature line, roughly matching the height of a handwritten signature relative to the surrounding text. This one adjustment does most of the work in making a signed PDF look properly signed rather than assembled.
Freelancers and contractors signing client agreements and statements of work. Tenants and landlords completing tenancy paperwork. Employees returning signed policies, forms, and acknowledgements to HR. Small businesses signing quotations, purchase orders, and delivery confirmations. Anyone dealing with a school, clinic, or council that sends forms by email expecting a signed return.
Upload your PDF by dragging it onto the box or clicking to browse. Upload your signature image. Position it where the document requires and adjust the size until it looks natural. Download the signed document. If the file needs a date or printed name alongside the signature, add those with Edit PDF.
This produces a visible signature — an image of your handwriting placed on the page. For the vast majority of everyday documents this is exactly what is being asked for and exactly what is accepted.
It is distinct from a cryptographic digital signature, which embeds a certificate proving who signed and detecting any subsequent change to the document. Those require an identity certificate from a recognised authority and are used for high-value contracts, regulated filings, and situations with a legal requirement for verifiable signing. If your document specifically calls for a digital certificate, a dedicated e-signature service is the right route.
A signature image in a PDF can be extracted by anyone with the file, which is worth bearing in mind before sending signed documents widely. Send them only to parties you have reason to trust, and consider Protect PDF to add password encryption when the document is sensitive or the recipient is not well known to you.
Both the document and your signature image are processed in memory and discarded the instant your download completes. Nothing is written to disk, nothing is logged, and no copy of either is retained.