Sign a PDF without printing or scanning

Updated on October 15, 2026

Your internship sends over the agreement: “Please sign and return.” There’s no printer in your dorm, the library is closed, and scanning with your phone gives you a crooked, gray photo. For many documents like this, you can skip all of that. You can put your signature straight into the PDF.

Which documents is this for?

• Internship agreements and documents from your internship provider.
• School forms: an enrollment form, a permission slip for a field trip, a request to the student office.
• Order forms, quotes and simple agreements.
• A lease or a move-in inspection report, if the landlord or agency accepts a signed PDF. Check that first.

There’s more on that last point below: not every signature has the same legal weight.

How to sign a PDF

1. Open the Sign PDF tool.
2. Drag your PDF into the box or click to choose it.
3. Create your signature. Choose Draw and sign with your mouse, finger or pen, or choose Picture and load a photo or scan of your signature. A white background then becomes transparent automatically.
4. Pick the Color: Black or Blue. Not happy with it? Click Clear and try again.
5. Go to the right page and place your signature. Use ‹ and › to browse to the page, drag the signature into place and adjust the Size. For fine-tuning, click it and move it with the arrow keys.
6. Choose the extra options you need. Does it have to go on every page, like initials? Tick On every page. Tick Add today’s date below it if the document asks for a date.
7. Click Sign PDF, then Download.
8. Open the result and check your signature. Make sure it’s in the right place.

What kind of signature is this?

In the EU, the eIDAS regulation distinguishes three types of electronic signature: simple, advanced and qualified.

What this tool creates is a simple electronic signature: a picture of your signature on the document. For many everyday documents, such as a form, an internship agreement or an order, that’s enough. Whether it’s accepted depends on the document and on who receives it.

A qualified electronic signature relies on a qualified certificate linked to your identity. Under eIDAS, it has the same legal effect as a handwritten signature. You get one through a qualified signing service, for example with a national eID card where your country offers one. This tool doesn’t create a qualified signature or a digital signature with a certificate.

This isn’t legal advice. In doubt, especially with a lease, an employment contract or a document for a notary or a government office? Ask the recipient which signature they accept.

Your signature stays with you

A signature is personal, and the document you sign often is too. Many online tools upload both your PDF and your signature to their server.

With PDFCommunity, signing happens in your browser. Your files are processed on your own device and not uploaded, and your signature isn’t saved: close the page and it’s gone. Check it yourself in your browser’s network tab; Verify that no PDF is uploaded shows you how. Why we’d rather not see contracts end up on a server is explained in Why you shouldn’t upload a contract online.

Good to know

• A picture is easy to copy. Only send a signed PDF to the people who need it, and don’t leave your signature lying around as a separate image file.
• Your signature isn’t remembered. Next time, you sign again. If you use a picture, keep it yourself somewhere you trust.
• Fill in the form first. If there are still fields to complete, do that before you sign. Filled-in form fields are kept.
• Your signature becomes part of the page. It’s drawn as an image in the page content, not added as a separate comment or form field. So in a regular PDF reader, nobody can move it or click it away. With a full PDF editor, someone can still change it, just like any other image in a PDF.
• Large files on a phone can be slow. The tool warns you beforehand if a file is too large for your device.
• Check the result before you send it.

Frequently asked questions