How to Create an Electronic Signature Free (Draw or Type)

To create an electronic signature, open the free PDF signer, choose your PDF, then make your signature one of three ways: Draw it with a mouse, finger or stylus, Type your name in a handwriting-style font, or Upload a picture of your real signature on white paper. Click Use this signature, tap where it goes on each page, and download the signed PDF. It's free, needs no account, and your document and signature never leave your device.

This guide is about making a signature that looks right and knowing which kind to use. For the full placing-and-saving walk-through, see how to sign a PDF without printing.

What an electronic signature is (and isn't)

"Electronic signature" is a broad term: any electronic sign that you agree to a document. A drawn squiggle, a typed name, a picture of your signature, even ticking "I agree" can all count, depending on the law and the situation.

A digital signature is a narrower, technical thing: a signature made with a certificate that proves who signed and shows if the file was changed afterwards. India's Digital Signature Certificates (DSC) are an example. The free PDF signer makes the first kind, an image of your signature on the page, like signing a printout. Our comparison of electronic vs digital signatures explains when each one is needed.

Three ways to create it, and how to make each look good

Draw it

Choose Draw, pick Black or Blue ink, and sign in the box. Tips:

• Use a finger or stylus on a phone or tablet. A mouse signature tends to look shaky. If you're on a laptop, consider opening the same page on your phone just to sign.
• Sign bigger than feels natural. It's scaled down when placed, and a large drawing keeps smoother curves.
• Press Clear and redo it until it looks like your usual signature. Three tries is normal.

Type it

Choose Type, enter your name in Your name, and it's shown in a handwriting-style font in the ink colour you picked. It's quick, perfectly neat and identical every time. It also looks least like your real signature, which matters for some recipients (see below).

Upload a picture of your real signature

Choose Upload a picture, then pick a photo of your signature. The paper is made see-through, so only the ink shows on the document. For a clean result:

1. Sign on plain white paper with a dark pen; a gel or felt-tip pen gives a solid line.
2. Photograph it in daylight, phone held flat above the page, with no shadow across the ink.
3. Crop close around the signature with the free image cropper, leaving a little white margin.

This gives the most authentic look, and it's what many people choose for letters and forms that will be compared with their paper signature.

Placing it and signing several pages

After Use this signature, click or tap where it should go. Drag it to move it, drag the corner to resize it, and press Delete (or the × button) to remove one. You can place it on as many pages as you like, and more than once on a page, for example a signature and initials on every page of a contract. The button shows how many you've placed, such as Sign PDF (6 signatures). PDFs of up to 200 pages can be signed.

Reusing your signature

For privacy, the signer doesn't store your signature anywhere: nothing is saved to a server or kept for next time. To reuse the same signature on future documents, keep a good image of it yourself:

• The simple way: keep your best signature photo (the cropped one from above) in a private folder, and upload it each time. The signer removes the white paper automatically.
• A transparent PNG: if you also want to drop your signature into Word or other apps, a PNG with a see-through background is handy. Our guide to making a transparent signature PNG covers this. Background Remover can do it; it's free for images up to 2 megapixels (a cropped signature photo is usually well under that). The image is uploaded, deleted as soon as it's processed, and the PNG is kept for 1 hour.

Treat that image like a key. Don't post it publicly or send it to people who don't need it.

Need your signature as a small image file for an online application form instead? That's a different job; see resizing a signature for online forms.

When is a typed signature acceptable?

Rules depend on the country, the kind of document and the person receiving it, so this isn't legal advice. As a general guide:

• Usually fine: everyday internal approvals, informal agreements, school and club forms, timesheets, many offer letters and rental applications, where the other side simply asks you to "sign and return".
• Better to draw or upload your real signature: forms that will be compared with a signature on file (bank, college or employer records), letters on your behalf, anything where looking like your usual signature matters.
• Needs more than an image: documents where the law or the organisation requires a certified signature, such as filings that need a DSC or Aadhaar eSign in India, or a document that must be signed in ink and witnessed. In India, the IT Act 2000 excludes certain documents, including wills and contracts for the sale of property, from electronic signing altogether.

When in doubt, ask the person who sent the document which signature they accept. It's a one-line email and saves a rejected form.

Create your signature now

Open the free PDF signer, draw, type or upload your signature, place it and download your signed PDF. It's free, needs no sign-up, and your document stays on your device.