Sign a PDF
without an account.
Most signing services want an email address before they will let you put your name on your own contract. For an ordinary agreement you do not need one, and you do not need to hand the document to a third party either. Here is what actually makes a signature count.
Two different things called a signature
An electronic signature is a mark showing intent to agree. A drawn squiggle, a typed name, a tick in a box. It carries no cryptography and proves nothing on its own, and for the overwhelming majority of agreements it is legally sufficient.
A digital signature is a cryptographic operation using a certificate issued to you by a certificate authority. It binds your identity to the exact bytes of the document, so any later change to the file invalidates it. This is what you need for regulated filings and some commercial contracts.
The two are constantly confused, including by software that sells the first while implying the second.
Whether a drawn signature is binding
In the United States the ESIGN Act of 2000 makes an electronic signature as enforceable as ink, as long as both parties intended to sign and can keep a copy. In the EU and UK, eIDAS does the same, defining three tiers: simple, advanced, and qualified. A drawn signature is a simple electronic signature and is admissible.
What courts examine is not the picture. It is intent, attribution and integrity: did you mean to agree, can it be shown it was you, and has the document changed since. A signed PDF sent from your own email, with the agreement text unchanged, satisfies all three for everyday use.
Some documents are excluded almost everywhere. Wills, most property transfers, court filings and some family law documents still require wet ink or a qualified signature. Check before assuming.
Making the signature
Three ways, roughly in order of how convincing they look.
Draw it. With a trackpad this looks nothing like your real signature. With a touchscreen and a finger it is closer. It does not matter much, because consistency with your other signatures is not what makes it binding.
Type it. A name set in a handwriting face is legible and unambiguous. It looks less personal and is perfectly acceptable.
Photograph a real one. Sign white paper in black ink, photograph it in even light, then remove the background so it drops onto the page cleanly. This looks best and is the most work.
Keeping the document intact
A signature added as an image sits on top of the page. Anything underneath is unchanged, which is what you want: the other party can still select the text and search it. Avoid any tool that flattens the whole document to images to place a signature, because it destroys the text layer and triples the file size.
If you need the file to be tamper evident, that is the job of a digital signature, not a drawn one. Flattening does not achieve it. Anyone can edit a flattened PDF.
Sending it
- Send from an address the other party already associates with you. Attribution is most of the argument.
- Keep the email. The message, its timestamp and the attachment are the audit trail.
- Do not re-export or re-compress after signing. Any change to the bytes weakens an integrity claim.
- If a date matters, type it rather than relying on file metadata, which travels badly.
When to use a real signing service
Multiple signers in sequence, an auditable certificate of completion, identity verification, or a counterparty who requires it. Those are real features and worth paying for. For a one page agreement between two people who know each other, they are overhead.