How to Sign a PDF Online (and What Kind of Signature You're Actually Adding)

Printing a PDF just to sign it and scan it back is the kind of workflow nobody misses once they've stopped doing it. Drawing a signature directly onto the file and downloading it takes under a minute — but before relying on it for anything important, it's worth understanding exactly what kind of signature you're adding.

What signing actually does

This draws an image of your signature — drawn with a mouse, trackpad, or finger — onto the page at the position you choose. It's a visual mark, the digital equivalent of signing with a pen, not a certificate-based digital signature. That distinction matters: this is not a legally binding e-signaturein the way a compliance-grade e-signature product is, because it doesn't verify identity or produce the kind of non-repudiation guarantee those services build their entire product around. For everyday agreements — the vast majority of contracts, forms, and sign-offs people deal with — a visual signature is widely accepted practice. For anything with real legal weight, check what your specific situation requires.

Two ways to sign: yourself, or someone else

Self-sign is for a document only you need to sign — it runs entirely in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and you download the signed file immediately.

Signature requestsare for sending a document to someone else. Because that has to track who opened the link and when they signed, it runs on the server rather than in a browser tab: you upload the PDF and enter the signer's email, they get a link with no account required, and once they sign, you're notified with an audit trail — the signer's IP address, browser, a timestamp, and a hash of the signed file. That's meaningfully more evidence than a bare image signature, but it's still short of identity verification — it proves someone with access to that email link signed the document, not who that person actually was.

How to sign a PDF yourself

1. Open the Sign PDF tool and add your PDF.
2. Draw or type your signature, then drag it onto the page and position it.
3. Download the signed PDF — nothing was ever uploaded.

How to request a signature from someone else

1. Open Request a Signatureand upload the PDF, then enter the signer's email.
2. They receive a link, review the document, and sign it — no account needed on their end.
3. You're notified once it's signed and can download the result with its audit trail.

If you need more than a visual signature

If a document needs to stay locked down after signing, add a password with Protect PDFonce it's signed. And if your situation genuinely requires a certificate-based digital signature or identity verification, that's outside what a visual signature tool — this one or any other — is built to provide.