Sign a PDF with a drawn signature
Signing a PDF here means drawing your signature on screen and stamping it as an image onto the page you choose, entirely in your browser with no upload and no account. The result is a visual signature — what you get by signing paper and scanning it — not a cryptographic digital signature. For everyday contracts, permission slips, and forms where the other party expects a handwritten mark, that is usually exactly what is asked for.
How it works
The signature pad is an HTML canvas that records your pointer strokes — mouse, finger, or stylus — as you draw. When you are happy with the result, the canvas is exported as a PNG with a transparent background, so only the ink lands on the document and the paper texture or field shading behind the signature line remains visible around your strokes.
That PNG is then embedded into the PDF as an image XObject: a self-contained image resource that page content can reference. The tool appends a short sequence of operators to the chosen page's content stream — save graphics state, apply a transformation matrix that positions and scales the image where you dropped it, paint the XObject, restore state. Placement is converted from screen pixels into PDF user space, where the origin sits at the bottom-left of the page and one unit is a point (1/72 inch). Because the operators are appended at the end of the stream, the signature always paints above the existing page content, exactly like ink on top of printed text.
It is important to be precise about what this does not do. PDF also defines certificate-based digital signatures (covered in ISO 32000 and Adobe's documentation): those compute a cryptographic hash over the file's bytes and sign it with a private key, so a viewer can verify who signed and whether even one byte changed afterward. This tool implements no cryptography. It produces the electronic equivalent of a wet-ink signature on a scan: visually authentic, widely accepted for routine paperwork, but carrying no machine-verifiable proof of signer identity or document integrity. If a counterparty asks for a "qualified" or "certified" signature, they mean the cryptographic kind, and you will need a certificate-based signing service or desktop software.
Worked example: signing a rental agreement
Your landlord emails lease.pdf — 9 pages, 780 KB — with a signature line on page 9. Open it in the tool, draw your signature on the pad (redraw until it looks right; only the final version is used), then jump to page 9 and drag the signature onto the line, resizing it to about 180 × 50 points so it sits naturally above the printed name.
Saving produces a 9-page PDF of 806 KB. The 26 KB increase is the transparent PNG of your signature plus a few dozen bytes of placement operators; the other 8 pages are byte-identical to the original. The whole exchange — open, draw, place, save — takes under a minute, and the lease never left your machine, which is worth noting when the document contains your address, income details, and bank references.
Sign PDF — frequently asked questions
Is a drawn signature on a PDF legally binding?
In many jurisdictions, including under the US ESIGN Act and the EU eIDAS regulation, a simple electronic signature such as a drawn image can be legally effective for ordinary agreements. Some documents and counterparties require stronger, certificate-based signatures, so check what the receiving party accepts.
What is the difference between this and a digital signature?
This tool places a picture of your signature on the page; a digital signature additionally computes a cryptographic hash of the file and signs it with a certificate, letting viewers verify the signer and detect any later change. This tool provides the visual part only.
Is my signature or document sent to a server when I sign?
No. The signature is drawn on a canvas in your browser and embedded into the PDF by JavaScript on your device. Neither the document nor the signature image is transmitted anywhere.
Can I place my signature on a specific page and position?
Yes. You choose the page and drag the signature to the exact spot before saving, and you can resize it to fit the signature line. The placement is converted into PDF page coordinates when the file is written.
Will the signature stay sharp when the PDF is zoomed or printed?
The signature is stored as a PNG image at the resolution of the drawing canvas, so it stays crisp at normal reading and print sizes. Extreme zoom will eventually show pixels, as with any scanned signature.
Can someone copy my signature out of the signed PDF?
Yes — the signature is an embedded image, and images can be extracted from any PDF, exactly as they can be photographed off paper. Only share signed documents with parties you would trust with a paper signature.