To sign a PDF for free, open it in the JFDI PDF toolkit, choose Signature, then draw, type or upload your signature and drag it into place. Download the signed PDF. There’s no account, no watermark and no limit on how many documents you sign, and the document stays on your device the whole time.
Step by step
- Open the PDF toolkit and drop your PDF on the page, or choose Sign a PDF on the start page.
- Go to the page that needs signing and choose Signature (shortcut S).
- Make your signature in one of three ways:
- Draw with a mouse, trackpad, finger or stylus (pen pressure is used where your device supports it). Choose black or one of two blues.
- Type your name and pick a handwriting style.
- Upload a photo or scan of your signature on paper. Remove the white background makes the paper see-through, so only the ink shows.
- Drag it into place and resize it from the corners.
- Add the date with the Date tool, which stamps today’s date as text you can edit. Use Add text for your printed name or initials.
- Download PDF.
Tick Remember on this device to reuse your signature next time. It’s kept in your browser only, never on a server, and you can delete it with its ×.
Which signature method looks best?
| Method | Looks like | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Upload a photo | Your real ink signature | Contracts and anything formal |
| Draw | Close to real, if you have a stylus or a steady finger | Quick forms on a phone or tablet |
| Type | A neat handwriting font | Informal approvals, where a signature is a formality |
For a photo, sign in black pen on plain white paper, photograph it in good light, and crop close. The background removal does the rest.
Is this a legally valid signature?
What you’re adding is an electronic signature: a picture of your signature placed on the page. In the UK, EU and US, electronic signatures are generally accepted for everyday paperwork such as tenancy agreements, consent forms, job offers and invoices. Some documents have special rules, such as wills and some property deeds, and some organisations insist on a particular service. If the stakes are high, check with whoever asked you to sign.
It isn’t a certificate-based digital signature, the kind that cryptographically locks a document and proves who signed it. If a PDF already carries one of those, changing the file in any way, in this or any other editor, makes that signature show as no longer valid.
Filling in the rest of the form
Most documents that need signing also need filling in:
- Fillable forms show blue-tinted boxes in the editor. Click a box and type, tick checkboxes and pick from drop-downs with the Select tool. Answers stay editable after download unless you tick Lock form answers in place in the Finish tab.
- Forms with no boxes, such as scans, can be filled in with Add text, Tick and Date.
Sending it back
If the signed file is too big to email, the Finish tab’s Making the file smaller setting usually fixes that; see how to compress a PDF for email. If it’s confidential, you can add a password there too, encrypted with AES-256. Send the password separately, by text or phone.
Why not use a free e-signature service?
Signature services are built for collecting signatures from other people, with tracking and reminders, and they’re good at that. But they need accounts, usually limit free use, and keep your document on their servers. To sign something yourself and send it back, you don’t need any of that.