How to sign a PDF without creating an account or uploading it

To sign a PDF without an account, use a tool that places a picture of your signature on the page on your own device. In PDF Case you draw, type or photograph the signature, put it where it belongs and download the signed copy. The document and the signature stay in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

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Why do signing sites ask for an account?

Services built around signing keep the document on their servers: they send it to the other party, record who signed and when, and store the finished copy. An account is how they tie all of that to you. That is useful when several people must sign and a record of the process is needed.

When you only have to put your signature on a form and send it back, none of it is needed. The signature is a small picture added to a page, and your own device can do that. Your signature and the document it sits on are worth keeping to yourself: together they are what someone would need to imitate you.

How do I sign a PDF in this app?

Sign PDF works in the browser tab, with no sign-up and no upload:

  • Open Sign PDF and choose the document.
  • Press Add signature and make one: draw it with a mouse, a finger or a pen, type your name, or choose a photo of your signature on white paper. The paper in the photo turns transparent, so only the ink goes on the page.
  • The signature appears on the page you are looking at. Drag it and resize it by a corner until it sits on the line. Go to another page and add it again if more pages need it, or add initials the same way.
  • Press Sign and download the signed copy. Your original stays as it was.

What exactly is added to the file?

The signature is drawn into the page’s content as a picture. It is not a comment or a stamp lying on top that another app could pick up and move. The rest of the document stays as it was: text can still be selected, links work, and a file that needed a password to open still needs the same one.

Form fields on the page stay editable. If you filled in a form before signing and the answers should no longer be changeable, run Flatten on the signed copy. The signature you made is kept only while the page is open; it is not stored on a server or in an account, so you make it again on the next visit.

How is a drawn signature different from a digital signature?

They are two different things that share a name. A drawn, typed or photographed signature is a picture of your handwriting on the page. It shows that you meant to sign, the way ink on paper does, but the file does not prove who placed it or that the document was not changed afterwards.

A certificate-based digital signature is a cryptographic seal over the whole file, made with a certificate issued to you by a provider that has checked your identity. A PDF reader can verify whose certificate it is and that not a single byte has changed since. PDF Case does not make this kind of signature. Note also that changing a file that already carries one, by adding a picture signature or anything else, makes that earlier signature stop verifying.

When is each kind accepted?

It depends on the country, on the kind of document and on who receives it, so treat this as orientation and not as legal advice. In many places a simple signature picture is accepted for everyday paperwork: internal forms, consents, orders, many ordinary agreements between parties who don’t dispute them. In the European Union, for example, the law says an electronic signature can’t be refused only because it is electronic, and it gives the full weight of a handwritten signature to the qualified kind, which is certificate-based.

Some documents require a particular form by law or by the recipient’s rules: a qualified electronic signature, a handwritten one on paper, or a notary. Filings with courts and public offices and certain contracts are common examples. If the document matters, ask the recipient which form they accept before you sign.

Tools for this

Files are processed on this device and never uploaded.

Questions

Is a signature drawn on a PDF legally valid?
Often, for everyday documents, but it depends on the country, the type of document and the recipient. Some documents require a certificate-based qualified signature or a handwritten one. When in doubt, ask whoever receives the document; this is not legal advice.
Do I need an account to sign a PDF?
No. In PDF Case you open Sign PDF, add your signature and download the signed copy. There is no sign-up, no email address to give and no upload: the work is done in your browser.
Is my signature stored anywhere?
In PDF Case, no. The signature you draw, type or import is kept in the page’s memory for the visit and is gone when you close the tab. It is never sent to a server.
Can someone remove my signature from the signed PDF?
Not by simply clicking and deleting it, because it is part of the page and not a comment on top. A picture signature does not seal the file, though: only a certificate-based digital signature shows whether a document was changed after signing.
Can I fill in a form and sign it in one go?
Yes, in two steps. Use Fill in a form to type the answers, then open the result in Sign PDF to add your signature. Flatten afterwards makes the answers part of the page so they can’t be edited.

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