Sign PDF Free - Draw or Type a Signature, No Upload

Sign a PDF without an account, an upload or a monthly plan

You got a lease, an NDA, a permission slip or a W-9 as a PDF, and someone wants it back signed today. The usual options are printing, signing and scanning (twenty minutes and a trip to the library printer), or a service like DocuSign or Adobe that wants an account, and often a subscription, before you can put your name on one page. Upload-based sites like Smallpdf and iLovePDF cap free use and store your contract on their servers for a while.

This tool signs the PDF in your browser. The document and your signature are never uploaded. The PDF engine (pdf-lib) runs on your device, stamps your signature into the page, and saves a new file to your downloads.

How to sign a PDF, step by step

Choose the PDF. Then create your signature one of three ways. Draw it with a mouse, trackpad, finger or stylus; a finger on a phone gives the most natural result. Type your name and pick a script style. Or upload a photo of your real signature on white paper, and the tool removes the paper background so only the ink remains.

The page you're signing appears as a box at its real shape and size, and your signature is placed near the lower right, where signature lines usually are. Drag it into position and resize it with the corner dot. Use + Date to add today's date and + Text for your printed name, initials or a title. Press Create signed PDF. A preview opens (on a phone, use Open preview in new tab) so you can check the signature sits on the line. If it's off, drag it and create again. The original is never modified, so you can repeat as often as you like. Then download.

Contracts that need initials on every page? Place your initials once, select them, and press Copy to every page.

Why the placement page is blank

Honest answer: rendering PDF pages in a browser takes a second, much larger library, and we'd rather keep this page fast. The placement box has the page's exact proportions and a half-inch grid, so you can judge position well: a signature line near the bottom of a US Letter page is roughly 1 to 2 inches up. The preview then shows the real signed page. Most people get it right on the first or second try. If the PDF has form fields, they're kept, and ticking Flatten locks the filled-in values so they display the same in every viewer.

Is this signature legally binding?

In the US, generally yes for most everyday documents. The federal ESIGN Act (2000) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, adopted in 49 states plus DC (New York has its own similar law), say a signature can't be denied legal effect just because it's electronic. What courts care about is intent to sign, consent to do business electronically, and being able to show who signed. A drawn or typed signature on a lease or NDA you email back usually meets that bar.

There are exceptions. Wills and testamentary trusts, many family law documents, court orders, certain real estate recordings, notarized documents and notices like utility shut-offs or eviction are commonly excluded or need extra formalities. Some parties, like banks and government agencies, also insist on their own e-sign platform. When in doubt, ask whoever sent the document what they accept. This isn't legal advice.

A drawn signature is not a digital signature

These two terms get mixed up constantly. What this tool creates is an electronic signature: an image of your signature, plus any text, drawn onto the page. It looks like ink and it's what almost every landlord, employer and school wants. A digital signature, in PDF terms, is cryptographic: a certificate issued to you signs a hash of the file, and Acrobat shows a blue bar saying the document hasn't been changed since signing. This tool doesn't do that, and neither do most free signing sites.

The practical difference: a digital signature proves the file wasn't altered after signing, while an image signature doesn't. For business contracts where tampering is a real risk, use a platform with certificate-based signing and an audit trail. For a lease, a permission slip or an offer letter going back to the person who sent it, a drawn signature is standard.

Tips for a signature that looks right

Sign bigger than feels natural on the pad; it shrinks cleanly and stays crisp. Blue ink makes it obvious to the recipient which copy is the signed one. After signing, don't edit the PDF in other tools, since some re-save pages as images. If the recipient needs everything in one file, sign first, then combine with merge PDF.