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How to sign a PDF without printing it
Add your signature to contracts, forms and letters in a minute
Create your signature
The Sign PDF tool offers three ways to make a signature. You can draw it with a mouse, finger or stylus, type your name in a handwriting-style font, or upload a photo of a signature written on white paper. The white background of an uploaded image is removed automatically so the ink sits cleanly on the page.
Place it on the page
- Press Use this signature to preview the document.
- Click the spot where the signature should go. Drag it to fine-tune the position.
- Use the size slider to make it larger or smaller.
- Move to other pages with Prev and Next if several pages need a signature, or choose to apply it to every page.
- Press the sign button and download the signed PDF.
What a visible signature means
The tool adds an image of your signature to the page. This is suitable for everyday paperwork such as rental forms, permission letters, internal approvals and NDAs between parties who accept scanned signatures. It is not a certificate-based digital signature and does not prove who signed or detect later changes. Where a law, bank or authority requires a certified digital signature, use the method they specify.
Good practice
- Keep a copy of the unsigned original.
- Sign only documents you have read in full.
- Do not share a signature image publicly; anyone can copy it.
- If the PDF is password-protected, unlock it first with Unlock PDF, then sign the unlocked copy.
Everything described here runs inside your browser tab. Your files are not uploaded to a server, which you can confirm by turning off your internet connection after the page has loaded and running the tool again.
More help: all FirePDF guides.