How to sign a PDF
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Contents
To add a signature to a PDF, open the Sign PDF tool, create your signature by drawing it, typing it, or picking a signature image, and place it exactly where the document needs it. Export the result and you have a signed PDF ready to send.
What sets this approach apart is where the work happens. Sign PDF runs entirely in your browser, so the PDF and the signature you create stay on your device from start to finish. No account is needed — open the page, make your mark, and export.
You also get more range than a single scribble box. There are three ways to make a signature — draw it, type it in one of six styles, or pick an image of the signature you already use — so the result can be as personal or as formal as the document calls for.
Step by step
- 1Open the Sign PDF tool.
- 2Pick the PDF you need to sign — the file stays on your device the entire time.
- 3Create your signature: draw it, type it, or pick a signature image you already have.
- 4If you type it, pick the look: Dancing Script, Alex Brush, Mr Dafoe, Homemade Apple, Script, or Print.
- 5If you draw or type it, pick the ink: Black, Blue, Red, or Green. Blue ink makes the original easy to tell from a copy.
- 6Place the signature exactly where the document needs it — the tool is built for precise placement.
- 7Need it on more than one page, such as initials on every page of a contract? Select what you placed and use Repeat on: All pages, Last page, or Custom pages. Each copy lands at the same spot.
- 8Export your signed PDF and save it to your device.
Three ways to make a signature
Sign PDF offers three ways to make a signature: draw it, type it, or pick an image. Drawing produces a mark that looks like your handwriting and suits documents where a personal touch matters. Typing is the fastest option, and it comes in six styles — four handwriting faces (Dancing Script, Alex Brush, Mr Dafoe, and Homemade Apple), which give a typed name a handwritten look in a real handwriting font embedded in the PDF; Script, which sets a name written in the Western European alphabet in an italic serif face; and Print, a plain printed name. A name with a letter a handwriting face lacks is set as Script sets it, and a name in any other script is set in the same upright face whichever style you pick. If you already keep a scanned signature as a PNG or JPG image, pick that image and reuse the mark you have always used.
Whichever you choose, the rest works the same way: position the signature precisely on the page, then export.
Your file stays on your device
Sign PDF is an in-browser tool. It runs entirely in your browser, which means the contract, lease, or offer letter you open never leaves your device — the file stays local from the moment you pick it to the moment you export. For the kind of paperwork that usually carries a signature, that is the difference that matters most.
One honest nuance: the tool is not fully offline. The page and its processing engine load over the network, and parts of the engine are fetched the first time a step needs them. The processing itself runs on your device. Rendering a page that holds a JPEG 2000 or JBIG2 image, as scanned documents often do, downloads an image decoder from our site the first time it is needed, and that step needs a connection. Chinese, Japanese or Korean text whose font is not embedded in the PDF needs a character map, downloaded from our site the first time it is needed, and that step needs a connection. Drawing text in a script outside the Western European alphabet downloads a matching font from our site the first time it is needed, and that step needs a connection.
What you get, and the limits
The tool accepts PDF input and produces a PDF: your original document with the signature placed where you put it. The per-file ceiling is 100 MB.
When someone else needs to sign
Sign PDF covers self-signing: you create and place your own signature on a document you already have. When the signature you need is someone else's, Request Signatures prepares the document for them: it adds a named, fillable field for each signer and packages the PDF with a manifest and an audit trail, for you to send. It does not send the request or collect the signatures itself.
And when the document is a form as much as it is a contract, pair signing with Fill Forms, which completes a PDF's existing AcroForm fields — text, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, and lists — right in your browser. Fill the fields in Fill Forms and export the completed PDF, then open that file in Sign PDF to add your signature.
Common questions
Do I need an account to sign a PDF?
No account is needed. Open the Sign PDF tool, create a signature, place it, and export the signed file.
Does my PDF leave my device when I sign it?
No. Sign PDF runs entirely in your browser, so the file stays on your device from start to finish.
Does Sign PDF work offline?
Not fully. The page and its processing engine load over the network, and parts of the engine are fetched the first time a step needs them. The processing itself runs on your device. Rendering a page that holds a JPEG 2000 or JBIG2 image, as scanned documents often do, downloads an image decoder from our site the first time it is needed, and that step needs a connection. Chinese, Japanese or Korean text whose font is not embedded in the PDF needs a character map, downloaded from our site the first time it is needed, and that step needs a connection. Drawing text in a script outside the Western European alphabet downloads a matching font from our site the first time it is needed, and that step needs a connection.
How large can the PDF be?
Up to 100 MB per file.
Can I collect signatures from other people?
Sign PDF handles your own signature. For signatures from others, Request Signatures prepares the PDF with a named, fillable field for each signer and packages it for you to send — pdf.xyz does not send it to them or collect the signatures.