Sign a PDF without printing or scanning it

The tool draws your signature onto the page as a picture. That is the same thing you get when you print, sign and scan: a visible mark and nothing more. It is not a cryptographic digital signature. The file carries no certificate, no timestamp and no record of who added the image. A note under the options says as much, and it is worth taking seriously.

For most everyday paperwork that is enough. Landlords, schools, clubs and small businesses usually want a signed copy back and do not check for anything beyond a signature on the line. If the sender told you to sign through a specific e-signature service, or the document states that a certified digital signature is required, use what they asked for. A pasted picture will not pass that check.

Under Signature, Draw it opens a dashed box where you sign with whatever you have. A fingertip on a phone screen produces a more natural signature than a mouse, so if you are at a laptop it can be worth opening the page on your phone instead. The signature is captured each time you lift your finger, so you can keep adding strokes until it looks right, and Clear wipes the box for another attempt. Ink sets the color and Thickness runs from 1 to 12; the defaults are near-black and 3.

Upload an image is the other route, and without a scanner that image is usually a phone photo of a signature on paper. It works, with one catch. A JPG has no transparency, so the whole photo lands on the page as a rectangle, paper included, covering the printed line and anything else beneath it. Crop the photo as tightly as you can before choosing it. Only a PNG with a transparent background drops cleanly onto the page, which is what the drawing box produces, so drawing is usually the better choice.

The preview shows one page at a time. If the document has several pages, use Previous and Next until the signature page is on screen. The counter reads Page 3 of 5 and the run button changes to Sign page 3, so you can confirm you are on the right one. The signature first appears near the lower right of the page. Drag it wherever it belongs; it cannot be dragged off the page.

Size comes from Width (% of page), between 5 and 90, with 30 as the default. Height follows the proportions of your drawing, so it never stretches. Set the width before fine-tuning the position: the top left corner stays put when the width changes and the box grows to the right and down, so a signature already sitting near the right edge can run past it until you drag it again. Pages stored with a rotation are handled; where you see it in the preview is where it lands.

Each run signs one page. Press Sign page N, then the Download button, which shows the new file name with -signed added. If you also need initials on other pages, press Start over, select the signed file and repeat. There is no text field, so a date next to the signature is a second pass: sign and download first, then load the signed file, press Clear, draw the date in the box and place it beside the signature.

A password-protected PDF is refused with a message pointing to Unlock PDF, and the Sign button stays disabled. Remove the password there first, sign, and if the recipient needs it locked again, add the password back with Protect PDF. The tool also takes one PDF at a time; if you drop several, only the first is kept and a warning names the limit.

The signature is an ordinary image inside the PDF, so anyone with a PDF editor could lift it out. If that concerns you, run the signed file through Compress PDF with Flatten to images selected, which turns each page into a single picture. Text stops being selectable, so do this only to the copy you send and keep the original.