Sign the page and send it back today
A permission slip, a quote, a lease addendum, a delivery note: the paper is fine, it only needs your mark. Draw the signature on the pad, click where it belongs, download the file. No account, no upload, no printer.
The Sign a PDF tool places a drawn or uploaded signature on a page at the size and position you choose, optionally with the date, and saves the signed PDF. The signature is stamped on your device. It is a visual signature, not a cryptographic one.
Be clear about what a drawn signature is
There are two very different things people call an e-signature. One is a cryptographic signature: a platform proves who signed, records when, and the file changes if anyone edits a character afterwards. The other is a picture of a signature placed on a page - which is what a pen on paper produces too, only without the paper.
This tool does the second. It draws your mark into the page as an image. That is honest and often enough: a quote you return to a supplier, a school trip form, a landlord's inventory, an internal approval. Nobody needs a certificate authority for those, and the recipient is not going to verify a hash - they want to see your name on line 14.
What it cannot do is prove identity to a stranger. If a contract will be disputed, if a regulator asks who signed, if the other side insists on a platform - use one. The table below is the short version of that decision.
| Kind | What it proves | Where it is enough |
|---|---|---|
| Drawn picture (this tool) | somebody put a mark on this page | quotes, forms, notes, internal approvals |
| Scanned wet ink | the paper was signed, then photographed | anything the recipient wants to see on paper |
| Platform e-signature | account, time, and no changes after signing | contracts, HR, anything disputed |
| Qualified signature (eIDAS, e-imza) | legal identity, equal to ink in law | tenders, notaries, banking |
- check_circleThe recipient already knows who you are
- check_circleThe document is internal, or low value, or both
- check_circleNobody will ask who signed it later
- check_circleThe other side asked for 'a signed copy', not a platform
- check_circleYou would otherwise print, sign and scan it
- check_circleThe original stays in your files after sending
Three moves, and the file is on its way
Make the mark
Draw with the mouse or a finger on the pad. Uploading a photo of your signature on white paper works too, and the paper background is removed for you.
Place it
Open the PDF, click where the line is, then drag to fine-tune. The width slider sets the size in points; the date can be added underneath.
Sign and download
The signature is written into the page as an image and the file downloads. Sign more than one page by clicking each of them before downloading.
The two decisions that make it look right
Put the signature where a person would sign: on the line, above the printed name, not floating in the margin. If the page has a signature block, the mark belongs inside it, roughly the width of the printed line beneath it.
On a form with two signature fields - applicant and guarantor - place the mark on the one that is yours. A signature in the wrong box is worse than no signature: it looks like someone signed the wrong role and the document has to be sent again.
Clicking on the page centres the signature on the click, so aim slightly to the left of the middle of the line. Dragging after that moves it without changing its size.
The width slider works in PDF points, the unit the page itself uses: 150 points is about 5.3 cm, which is a normal signature on an A4 form. Under 100 points it starts to look like a scribble at the edge of the page; over 250 it looks like a logo.
The height follows the shape of your mark, so a wide signature stays wide instead of being squashed. That is why a photo of a signature with a lot of empty paper around it looks small: crop it before uploading, or turn on the white background removal, which trims the paper to transparent.
The optional date is printed in a normal text font just under the mark, at a size proportional to it. It reads as a date written next to a signature, not as part of it - which is what you want if the recipient checks the signing date.
The signature becomes an image object on the page. The text of the document is untouched: it stays selectable, searchable and copyable, links keep working, and the pages keep their size. The file grows by the size of the signature image, usually a few hundred kilobytes at most.
What does not happen: no password is added, no certificate, no lock. Anyone can remove the image again with a PDF editor. If that matters, the file has to be protected by something stronger than the mark itself - a platform signature, an encrypted PDF, or a scanned paper original.
Keep the unsigned original. Once the signature is baked into the file, changing its position means signing the original again.
Where people actually use this
Quotes and orders
A supplier sends a PDF quote, you sign the acceptance page and send it back in the same minute. No print, no scanner, no missing page.
Forms for other people
Trip slips, club registrations, consent forms: the parent signs on a phone and the school gets a file it can archive.
Rental and handover
Inventory lists and key handovers, where the point is that both sides looked at the same pages on the same day.
Freelance contracts
A short agreement with a client who is not going to open a signing platform account for one page.
Delivery notes
The driver's sheet photographed, the receiver's mark added, the file returned before the van leaves.
Internal approvals
Budgets, holiday requests, purchase orders: the signature is a record inside a company that already knows who you are.
Questions before you sign anything
Is a drawn signature legally valid?expand_more
Can I sign more than one page?expand_more
My signature landed in the wrong place - can I move it?expand_more
Why does my uploaded signature have a grey box around it?expand_more
The tool says my page is rotated. Why?expand_more
Is my signature or my document uploaded anywhere?expand_more
What happens to the file size and the text?expand_more
The form is signed before the coffee is cold
Draw once, place it, download. The same mark works on the next document.
fact_checkQuick facts
- A signature placed in this way is an image stamped on the page; a cryptographic signature is a different thing and needs a certificate.
- A signature at the size a pen would write it reads as authentic; one stretched across the footer looks pasted.
- A PDF describes every element by its position on the page, which is why it looks identical everywhere and why its text does not reflow.menu_bookAdobe
- PDF 2.0 permits AES-256 encryption for the password that protects a document, while older files may use 40-bit RC4.menu_bookAdobe
- PNG compresses with DEFLATE, so decoding always returns exactly the pixels that were saved.menu_bookW3C
helpQuestions people ask
How do I sign a PDF on my computer?expand_more
Is a drawn signature on a PDF legally binding?expand_more
What is the difference between a drawn and a digital signature?expand_more
hubWhat this page is about
- PDFopen_in_new
The Portable Document Format, standardised as ISO 32000 and documented by Adobe in the PDF 1.7 reference, that fixes the layout of a page.
- PNGopen_in_new
A lossless image format defined by the W3C with an 8-bit alpha channel and gamma information, designed for the web in 1996.
- Exif metadataopen_in_new
The metadata block that cameras and phones write into a photo, defined by CIPA as Exif DC-008: camera, settings, timestamps and GPS position.
library_booksOfficial sources cited on this page
Continue with the same file
Each of these opens what the tool above produces. Use “Use in another tool” under the result to carry the file over — it moves from tab to tab inside your browser, never to a server.
Switched-off tools are not listed here: only what works right now.