Sign a PDF

A drawn signature is a picture

Typing, drawing or uploading a signature all end the same way: an image of your mark placed on the page at the size and position you choose. Sign PDF does exactly that, in the tab, and the file never uploads.

For everyday paperwork this is enough. Consent forms, internal approvals, school papers and rental applications ask for a mark that shows intent, not for cryptography. A drawn signature on the page satisfies them the way ink on paper did.

Draw with a finger or a stylus rather than typing where it matters. A typed name in a script font fools nobody up close, while a shaky drawn line reads as human. Save the mark once and reuse it; redrawing it every time only adds wobble.

When they ask for certified

Some recipients need proof, not a picture: that the signature came from you and the file did not change afterwards. That is a certified digital signature, backed by a certificate from an authority, and it cannot be drawn into existence in a browser tab.

The comparison guide explains the line between the two and which situations demand which. If a bank, a notary or a government portal asks for certified, no visual stamp qualifies, however official it looks.

Place it like it matters

A signature floating near the line looks wrong at a glance and invites rejection. Zoom in, align the mark with the signature line, and size it to the surrounding text rather than to the screen. A mark half the height of the line looks stamped; a mark twice the height looks pasted.

Date next to the mark in the document's own date format, not yours. An American form with a European date reads as an error to whoever processes it. Match the form, not your habits.

Sign the final version only. A signature placed before the last edit attests to a file that no longer exists, and anyone checking will notice the mismatch before you do.

Type, draw, or upload

Three ways to make the mark, three different looks. Typing renders your name in a script font: fast, tidy, and obviously not handwritten. Drawing with a finger or stylus gives a human line with human wobble. Uploading a scan of your ink signature gives the real thing, with paper texture if you forget to crop it out.

Draw once, save, reuse. A signature drawn fresh each time drifts, and drift reads as forgery to whoever compares two documents. Make one good mark, store the image, and place the same file every time. Consistency is what makes a mark believable.

Crop uploads tight before placing them. A signature floating in a white rectangle the size of a postcard, stamped small onto a line, carries its background with it and looks pasted. Trim to the ink and the mark sits on the page instead of hovering over it.

Keep the mark reusable

Signatures get reused across dozens of documents, so treat the mark as an asset, not a one-off. Store the source image somewhere you control, at a resolution that survives printing: thin lines drawn at screen size go jagged on paper.

Name it plainly and keep one current version. Three files called signature-final, signature-final-2 and signature-new invite placing the wrong one on the wrong document, which is exactly the inconsistency that raises questions.

Never place the mark on a file you will keep editing. Every later change sits above or below a signature that attested to an earlier state. Sign last, flatten, send.

Keep the unsigned original

Save a copy of the file before placing the mark. A signed document that needs changes must be edited unsigned and signed again, and without the original that means starting from the signed file and hoping nobody compares versions.

The unsigned copy is the only clean restart. Name it plainly, store it next to the signed one, and never send it by accident. Sending the unsigned version where the signed one was expected reads as unsigned, whatever your intentions were.

Flattening bakes it in

A placed signature starts life as an annotation floating above the page: movable, deletable, liftable. Flattening merges it into the page content, after which it is ink rather than an object. Most recipients cannot tell the difference, but anyone who opens the file in an editor can.

Flatten as the last step before sending. Flattening first and editing after puts new content above a signature that attested to an older state. The order is always edit, sign, flatten, send, and skipping the middle two is how signed files end up saying things nobody signed.

A flattened file cannot be unflattened, so the unsigned original from the previous section is the only way back. The pair travels together through every draft: one to edit, one to send.