Sign a PDF in four steps
- Open the PDF editor and choose your PDF. When you start from this guide, the signature window opens automatically.
- Create your signature: Draw it, Type your name and pick a handwriting style, or Upload a photo of your signature.
- Drag the signature into place and resize it with the corner handles. Add the date or your printed name with the Text tool.
- Click Download in the top right corner to save the signed PDF.
Three ways to create your signature
1. Draw it
The Draw tab is a signature pad. Sign with your mouse, a touchpad, your finger on a phone or tablet, or a stylus. You can choose the ink color (black, blue or dark blue) and the line thickness, and press Clear to start again.
2. Type it
On the Type tab, enter your name and pick one of the handwriting styles (Dancing Script, Great Vibes or Caveat). This is the quickest option when you just need a neat signature on an everyday form. The typed signature is placed as real text, so it stays sharp at any zoom level.
3. Upload a photo
Sign a sheet of white paper, take a photo and choose it on the Upload tab (PNG, JPG and HEIC photos from an iPhone work). Leave “Remove white background” switched on and only the ink is kept, so the signature sits cleanly on top of the document instead of in a white box.
Placing and adjusting the signature
After you click “Use this signature”, it appears in the middle of the visible page and is already selected. Drag it to the signature line, and drag a corner handle to make it bigger or smaller — the proportions are kept. Use the arrow keys to nudge it by one point, or by ten points with Shift held down.
While you move it, pink alignment guides show when the signature lines up with other items or with the middle of the page. Hold Alt to move it freely without snapping.
- Add the date: pick Text, click next to the signature and type the date.
- Add your printed name or job title under the signature in the same way.
- Need the same signature on every page? Select it, press Ctrl+C, scroll to the next page, click on it and press Ctrl+V. The copy lands in the same position.
- Signed in the wrong place? Press Ctrl+Z to undo, or select the signature and press Delete.
Signing PDF forms with a signature field
Some PDF forms have a dedicated signature field. Click it and the signature window opens; the signature you create is fitted into the field automatically. Other fields of the form can be filled in at the same time — see the guide to filling PDF forms.
Privacy: why signing in the browser is safer
PDF Editor never uploads your document. The PDF is opened, signed and saved entirely on your device, so contracts, bank forms and ID documents never pass through a server. There is no account and nothing to delete afterwards.
Tip: if you need to hide something before you sign and send a document — an account number, for example — use Redact, not Whiteout. Redact removes the text from the file; Whiteout only covers it.