Request Signatures
Prepare a PDF for others to sign.
Request Signatures runs on our secure server
- Encrypted upload
- Your file is uploaded directly to short-lived object storage over a pre-signed URL.
- Safety checks
- Each file is checked before any processor sees it: an empty file, a file whose type contradicts its name or this tool, or a PDF with no PDF header is refused. Whether a malware scan runs as well is reported by the live server, and shows here once this page has heard from it.
- Processing
- A separate processing server — not this website — fetches your file from that storage and does the work.
- Download
- You get a signed, expiring link to the result — no account required.
- Auto-delete
- Inputs are wiped right after processing; outputs auto-delete within the retention window.
Checking our secure server…
About this tool
Add a fillable signature field (and an optional date) for each signer, then download a ZIP with the prepared PDF, a signer manifest and an audit trail. You send it.
Files are processed on a secure server, which deletes the upload when the job ends and serves the result for a limited time.
More details
Request Signatures gets a PDF ready for other people to sign. You list up to 10 signers by name and email, pick the page for the signature block, and say whether they sign one after another or all at once. Our server stacks one fillable signature box per signer near the bottom of that page, each with a date box beside it unless you untick that option.
What you download is a ZIP, not a signed document. Inside are prepared.pdf with the new fields, manifest.json recording every signer, field and the chosen order, audit-trail.json with the original file's SHA-256 fingerprint and one "request.prepared" event, and a README.txt. Nobody is emailed and the order is recorded, not enforced: you send prepared.pdf yourself, and each signer types into their own boxes.
The fields are added by pdf.xyz's secure server, not in your browser, so your PDF (a single upload, capped at 100 MB) and the signer names and addresses are sent over TLS to that server. It deletes the PDF you uploaded once the job ends. The ZIP, which carries those names and addresses, can be fetched for 60 minutes before the link to it is refused, and a daily storage rule later erases the stored ZIP.
When to use it
A contract two parties sign one after the other
Leave Signing order on Sequential and point Signature page at the closing page. README.txt lists signers in the order entered, so whoever forwards the file knows who goes first.
A resolution or consent form many people sign
Add up to 10 signers and choose Parallel. Rows keep one height for a short list and shrink once more names are added, so the whole block still fits on the chosen page.
A flat PDF that has nowhere to type
An exported or scanned agreement with no form fields gains named boxes, so a signer can type a name and date instead of printing and scanning.
Recording which version went out
manifest.json and README.txt both carry the SHA-256 of the file you uploaded. Hash your original later and compare, to confirm it is the document the request was prepared from; prepared.pdf itself will not match, because the boxes changed it.
What this tool can do
- Signers
- Up to 10 per request, each given a named, fillable signature field — with a date field beside it if you ask for one.
How it works
1Add your PDF
The form is there from the start, and its Prepare button works only when the status check finds our server's storage, queue and daemon ready. If it finds them not ready, you see a one-line note (a Why? button under it gives the reason), Try again, and a button labelled "Notify me when this ships", which records only the tool's name and asks for no contact details; if the check does not answer at all, a Check again button retries it. Then drag a single PDF, no larger than 100 MB, onto the dashed area headed "Add your PDF, or" and ending in a browse link, or click that link; Remove drops the chosen file.
2List the signers
Under Signers, enter a Full name and email address for each person. Add signer adds a row, up to 10, and the bin icon removes one while more than one row remains. A row missing its name or a valid-looking email is left out of the package without a warning.
3Set the order and the page
Choose "Sequential — one at a time" or "Parallel — everyone at once" under Signing order, enter the Signature page number, and fill Request title (optional) if the README and manifest should name the agreement. Untick "Add a date field next to each signature" for signature boxes only.
4Prepare and download
Press Prepare signature request. It stays disabled until a PDF and one complete signer row exist, while the PDF is still being read ("Reading…" beside its name), and for an encrypted PDF. Once pressed, its label follows the job: "Uploading your file…", then "Waiting for our server…" while it is queued, "Preparing request…" while our server adds the fields, and "Downloading the result…" as the package comes back. The Download button for the file ending in -signature-request.zip then saves a copy the page already holds; there is no link to come back to, so keep the tab open until the ZIP is saved.
Common questions
Does pdf.xyz send the document to my signers?
No. There is no email, reminder or status tracking. The names and addresses you type are copied into manifest.json and README.txt; unzip the package and send prepared.pdf however you normally would.
Does this create a certified or digital signature?
No. Each box is an ordinary text form field that the signer types into. There is no certificate, identity check or tamper seal, and the package is always marked as prepared, never as signed.
How do signers fill in their boxes?
Fields are named after their owner, such as Signer1-Signature-1 and Signer1-Date-1; the date box is blank text, not a date stamp. Fill Forms on pdf.xyz types into them in the browser without uploading, but refuses letters outside the standard PDF fonts' Western European set, and its Flatten after filling option bakes every field into the page, so a signer who ticks it also wipes out the still-empty boxes of every other signer.
Can I drag the boxes somewhere else?
No. They are placed automatically near the left edge, just above the bottom of the chosen page as it is displayed, so any rotation or crop the page carries is taken into account. Signer 1 is lowest, and the block climbs higher with each extra signer. Once a signer row is complete, the panel previews that page with each signer's boxes drawn where they will land. The boxes are outlines laid over whatever is printed there, so pick a page with blank space at the foot.
What does Sequential change?
It is recorded in manifest.json and printed as "Routing: sequential" in the README. pdf.xyz does not route the file, so the order holds only if you pass it from one signer to the next yourself.
Why was my request refused?
Once your PDF has been read, the Signature page box shows its page count, accepts only pages the PDF has and starts on the last one; if a page past the end still reaches our server, the error names both your page and the PDF's page count. An encrypted PDF is stopped as soon as you add it, before anything is uploaded, with a message that says which lock it has, or, when the check cannot tell, asks for whichever password applies: one that needs a password to open is called password-protected, and one that opens without a password but carries its author's editing restrictions is told so, since fields cannot be added to either, and Prepare signature request stays disabled. A damaged PDF is refused by our server as a file that couldn't be read as a PDF. Bytes without a PDF header never reach this step; a basic soundness check rejects them first. For a locked file, remove the lock with Unlock PDF (a separate upload to the same server), using the password that opens it or, for a restricted file, its owner (permissions) password, and prepare the unlocked copy.
How large can my file be?
Up to 100 MB per file.
Does Request Signatures email my signers?
No. It prepares the request: you add up to 10 signers, and our server adds a named, fillable field for each of them to the PDF and packages it for you to send. Nothing is sent from pdf.xyz, and nothing is signed until each signer fills in their fields.
What is in the download?
A ZIP holding prepared.pdf (the PDF with each signer's fields added), manifest.json (a manifest recording the signers, their fields and the signing order), audit-trail.json (an audit trail holding the request's preparation event) and README.txt (a README explaining the package).
How do my signers fill it in?
Each signer opens prepared.pdf and types into the fields named for them — in Fill Forms, or in any PDF reader that fills form fields. They are text fields, not certified digital signatures.
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