Put your handwritten signature on a PDF

Before you sign: what the sender expects

Priya has a nine-page tenancy agreement, lease_2026_final.pdf, that her landlord wants back by Monday morning: full signature and date on page 9, initials in the corner of every page. She has no printer, a laptop and a phone. Ten minutes is plenty, provided she knows what to put where before she starts.

Read the email and the document once with these questions in mind:

• Where exactly: a signature line, a box, or wherever there is space at the end.
• What else: initials on each page, a printed name, the date, a place of signing.
• Which date format the document already uses, for example 02/11/2026 or 2026-11-02.
• Whether there are fillable fields to complete first, such as an address or an account number.
• Whether the sender asks for a certified digital signature. If so, a picture of your handwriting is the wrong product, and the last section explains what to do.

Three ways to make the mark

For an upload, sign a sheet of plain white paper with a black pen a little thicker than usual, and photograph it straight on in daylight with no shadow across it. Crop the photo tight to the ink before you upload it. The tool uses the whole picture as the mark, with no automatic trimming, so a wide photo turns into a wide box that is awkward to fit on a line. Leave Remove a light paper background ticked, as it is by default, and the white paper turns transparent while the darker ink stays.

Signing in your browser, page by page

1. Open Sign PDF and choose the file. Password-protected PDFs are not accepted, so if yours asks for a password to open, remove it first with Unlock PDF.
2. Pick Draw, Type or Upload and create the signature. A status line tells you when it is ready to place.
3. Go to the page with the signature line and press Place signature. Drag the mark onto the line and use the size control until it is roughly as tall as the printed text around it.
4. For initials, type them into the Initials field, then move through the pages with the arrows and press Place initials on each one.
5. Place date writes today's date in your browser's date format. If the document uses another format, type the date into the Text field and press Place text instead.
6. Press Add marks to PDF. The copy is reopened, its page geometry and selectable text are compared with the original, and the pixels inside each mark are checked for a visible change. If anything fails, no download is offered.
7. Download the signed PDF and give it a new name, such as lease_2026_signed_PS.pdf, so the unsigned original stays untouched next to it.

Neither the PDF nor your signature leaves the tab, and the signature is not saved for a later visit. If you sign often, keep your own clean PNG of it and upload that each time.

Signing slips and how to undo them

• The signature sits in a white rectangle that hides the line. The uploaded photo kept its paper. Upload it again with background removal ticked, or crop closer.
• The mark looks pasted on. It is usually too big or floating above the line. Select it, shrink it to text height and set its baseline on the line.
• The date clashes with the document. Remove the date mark and add the date as text in the format the document uses.
• You signed the wrong version. If the sender emailed a revised draft after you started, discard the signed file and sign the new one. Check the file name and the last-changed clause before signing.
• The signed copy is too big to email. An uploaded signature photo adds weight. Run the file through Compress PDF with the size the mailbox accepts, then read its text-integrity verdict before you send.
• The form fields can still be edited. Sign PDF writes its marks into the page itself, but filled fields stay live. Complete them in Fill PDF form, sign, then use Flatten PDF to make the field values permanent.
• The tool warns about signature fields. The document contains certificate signature fields, and adding visible content can invalidate a certificate signature that someone has already applied. Ask the sender before continuing.

When a picture of your signature is not enough

A visible signature shows intent. It does not prove who drew it, it carries no trusted timestamp, and anyone holding the file can copy the image. For a lease, a consent form or an internal approval that is normally fine. For some documents it is not.

If the sender gave you a link to their own e-signing service, sign there rather than downloading the PDF, because that service records the audit trail they rely on. If a bank, court, notary or government portal asks for a qualified or certificate-based signature, no drawn mark qualifies; you need a certificate from a provider or from your employer's IT department. The guide to digital and electronic signatures sets out the difference.

The PDF reader built into your computer or phone may also have a signature tool. It works offline too, and is a reasonable choice if you already use it, though some readers store the signature as a separate layer that can be moved later.