What is the Sign PDF tool?
This is the print-sign-scan cycle replaced by a browser tab. You open a PDF, produce a signature — drawn with your finger or mouse, typed in a script face, or uploaded as an image — position it on the page, and save a signed copy. You can sign PDF online free with no watermark on the result and no account to register.
The finished signature is drawn into the page itself and flattened, so anyone who opens the file sees it as part of the document rather than as a comment or a sticky note that a different viewer might hide. Position is stored in PDF points rather than screen pixels, which is why zooming in, rotating your phone or resizing the window never nudges a signature off the line you put it on. Rotated pages and unusual crop boxes are handled too.
Privacy is the reason to prefer a local tool for this particular job. A signature page usually carries your name, your address and often your bank or ID details, and the signature image itself is worth protecting. Nothing here is transmitted: pdf.js renders the page for you, pdf-lib writes the new file, and your browser saves it straight to your downloads folder.
How to add a signature to a PDF
- Drop the PDF onto the upload area, or click it to browse. The document opens in the editor with a page strip above it.
- Pick a tab: Draw to sign by hand (choose the ink colour and pen thickness), Type to enter your name in a script, serif, handwriting or typewriter face, or Upload to use a photo or PNG of a real signature.
- Check the preview pane — it shows the exact artwork, its size in millimetres and the opacity that will be stamped.
- Set the width on the page (15 to 140 mm) and, if you want a softer look, lower the opacity.
- Press Add to this page, or Add to every page for initials on every sheet. Then drag it into position, resize with the corner dot, or nudge with the arrow keys.
- Move through the pages with Prev and Next, add more signatures wherever they are needed, and click Download signed PDF.
Key features
- Three ways to make a signature — draw it freehand on the pad, type your name in one of four faces, or upload an existing image of your handwriting.
- Automatic edge trimming — blank margins around the artwork are cropped, and the “Remove the white background” option turns a photographed signature on paper into a clean transparent stamp.
- Millimetre-accurate placement — the info line reports the exact width, height and distance from the left and top edges of the page as you drag.
- Sign one page or all of them — a single click stamps every page, and the page strip highlights which pages already carry a signature.
- Ink colour, pen weight and opacity — match a blue-ink signature or fade a watermark-style mark back to 40%.
- Keyboard control — arrow keys move the selected signature a point at a time, Shift makes bigger jumps, and Delete removes it.
- Zoom and fit — work at up to 300% when you need to land inside a small signature box on a dense form.
Benefits of using this e-sign tool
- Your signature never leaves your device. That matters more here than with any other PDF task — an uploaded signature image is a reusable copy of you.
- Faster than paper. No printing, no scanning, no phone photos of a crooked page, and the text of the contract stays selectable instead of becoming a grey scan.
- Unlimited documents. There is no monthly allowance of signatures and no per-document charge, so signing eight forms costs the same as signing one.
- Reusable in seconds. Draw your signature once, then use Add to every page and the width slider to apply the same mark consistently across the whole file.
- Nothing branded on the output. The signed PDF carries your signature and nothing else — no footer advertising the tool that made it.
Who should use this tool?
Freelancers and contractors
A client sends a statement of work at 6pm and wants it back tonight. Draw your signature once, place it on the signature line, add your initials to every page if the contract asks for them, and return the file before dinner. The whole loop takes about a minute.
HR and onboarding teams
Offer letters, policy acknowledgements and equipment handover forms all need a countersignature from the company side. Sign the employer copy with a consistent, correctly sized signature, then send it on — and because the tool is local, the candidate's personal details never pass through a third-party service.
Tenants, patients and customers returning forms
Rental agreements, consent forms and direct debit mandates arrive as PDFs and are expected back the same way. Typing your name in the script face is enough for most of these; use the upload tab when the recipient specifically wants your handwritten signature.
Anyone without a printer
The old workaround — print, sign, scan, hope the file is not 20 MB — is unnecessary. Signing directly in the PDF keeps the document crisp, keeps the file small and works just as well from a phone, where you can draw a genuinely natural signature with your fingertip.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a legally binding digital signature?
It is an electronic signature — a picture of your signature flattened into the page — not a cryptographic digital signature. There is no certificate, no signing key and no tamper-evident seal, so a viewer will not show a green “signature valid” banner. Image signatures are accepted for a great many everyday agreements, but if the recipient specifically requires a certificate-based signature you will need software that holds a digital ID.
Can I sign a PDF without printing it?
Yes, that is the point of the tool. Draw or type the signature on screen, place it on the page and download the result. No printer, scanner or phone camera is involved at any stage.
Can I use a photo of my handwritten signature?
Yes. Upload the image on the Upload tab. A PNG with a transparent background gives the best result; for a photo taken on white paper, tick “Remove the white background” and the near-white pixels become transparent so only the ink is stamped onto the page.
Can the signature be moved or deleted after I place it?
Until you download, yes — drag it, resize it from the round corner handle, nudge it with the arrow keys or press Delete. Once the signed PDF is written the signature is flattened into the page content, so keep the original file if you might need an unsigned copy later.
Do you store my signature or my document?
Neither. Nothing is sent anywhere: the document is rendered locally, the signature exists only in the page's memory, and both are gone as soon as you close or reload the tab.
Can I add a signature to every page at once?
Use “Add to every page”. The same artwork is placed in the same spot on all pages, and you can still drag each copy afterwards — useful when one page needs the mark in a different corner.
Does it work on a phone or tablet?
It works well there. The signature pad accepts touch and stylus input, so a finger-drawn signature on a tablet usually looks more natural than a mouse-drawn one, and the editor layout stacks for narrow screens.
Can I sign a password-protected PDF?
Remove the password first with the Unlock PDF tool. Encrypted files may fail to open or lose content here, and the signed copy is saved without encryption, so re-protect it afterwards if it needs a password.
Related tools you might need
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