How to fill in and sign a PDF

Complete a form and add your signature without printing it, scanning it, or paying a subscription.

The print-sign-scan ritual is one of the more absurd things still routine in office life: a perfectly good digital document is turned into paper, marked with a pen, photographed badly, and turned back into a worse digital document. The alternative is usually a subscription you'd rather not buy for one form a year, or a free website that wants your signed contract on its servers.

Step-by-step

1. Open the tool. Go to PDF Tools and pick "Fill & Sign".
2. Load the form. The page renders in your browser.
3. Pick a tool, then click where it goes. Text for names and answers, a tick or a cross for checkboxes, today's date as a one-click shortcut, and Signature when you reach the line.
4. Draw your signature once. Use a mouse, trackpad or finger. It is reused for the rest of the document and never leaves your device.
5. Flatten and download. Your marks are written into the page content, so the finished PDF looks the same everywhere and can't be dragged around by whoever opens it.

Signing on a phone or tablet

A finger on a touchscreen produces a far more natural signature than a mouse. The signature pad accepts touch input, so if the form arrived by email it is often quickest to open the tool on your phone, sign there, and send the finished file straight from it.

What kind of signature this is

This creates an electronic signature in the everyday sense — a visible mark you applied to a document, flattened into the file. That is what the overwhelming majority of forms, agreements and internal approvals ask for, and it is legally recognised for most purposes in most jurisdictions.

It is not a certificate-based digital signature: there is no cryptographic certificate binding your identity to the document, and no tamper-evident seal. If you have been asked specifically for a qualified or certificate-based signature — some property, government and regulated-finance processes require one — you need a service that issues certificates, not this tool. We would rather say so plainly than let you find out at the worst moment.

Frequently asked questions

Does my signature get uploaded?

No. It is drawn on a canvas in your browser, embedded into the PDF locally, and discarded when you close the page. A signature is about as sensitive as a scanned image gets, which is exactly why this tool doesn't ask you to upload one.

The form has proper fillable fields — can I use those?

You can type anywhere on the page, which works for every form including scanned ones. For a document with genuine AcroForm fields, clicking directly in the field position and typing gives the same visual result.

Can the recipient edit what I filled in?

The marks are flattened into the page, so they are not separate movable objects. Anyone can of course edit a PDF with the right software — flattening prevents accidental disturbance, not deliberate alteration.