How to sign a PDF (and when a visual signature is not enough)

Most signing needs are simple: a document needs your signature in a specific spot. That takes under a minute. But there is a legal distinction worth knowing before you rely on it.

No upload. No watermark. No sign-up. Every tool mentioned here runs inside your browser.

The quick way

Open Sign PDF, draw your signature with a mouse, finger or stylus, then click on the page preview where it should sit. Adjust the width slider until it looks right, then download.

Turn on "stamp on every page" for initialled multi-page documents. The signature is embedded as a transparent image, so it sits over the text without a white box.

When a visual signature is not enough

A drawn signature is an image. It does not prove who signed, and it cannot detect later edits. For a loan agreement, a statutory filing or anything that may be disputed, you need a certified digital signature (DSC / eSign) with a cryptographic certificate and an audit trail.

In India, Aadhaar eSign and class-3 DSC tokens provide that. In the EU, qualified electronic signatures under eIDAS. Those are different products from a drawn signature — do not substitute one for the other.

Making the signature stick

If the recipient’s viewer shows form fields or lets them move the signature, flatten the document afterwards. Flattening bakes the signature into the page so every viewer renders it identically.

If the file must not be edited at all, encrypt it with a password and disable editing permissions.

Questions

Is my signature uploaded anywhere?

No. You draw it on a canvas in your browser and it is embedded into the PDF locally.

Can I reuse a saved signature?

Not currently — you draw it each session, which is also better for privacy.

Open Sign PDF →

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