About signing a PDF here Open a PDF, make a signature - draw it with a mouse or finger, type your name in a handwriting font, or upload a photo of your signature on paper, which has the paper taken out so only the ink remains - and click where it goes. It can be dragged, resized and placed as many times as the document needs, along with today's date, typed text and ticks. If the PDF has its own form fields, they are listed to fill in, and can be locked when you save.
It can also turn a plain PDF into a fillable form. Draw text boxes (one line or several), checkboxes, dropdowns and groups of radio buttons onto the pages and name them, and they are saved as real PDF form fields, which a PDF reader lets the recipient click into and fill in - as can this page, if the saved file is opened here again.
A picture of your signature placed on the page is an electronic signature, which is what most letters, leases and forms ask for. If you have a certificate file (.pfx or .p12), the page can also add a digital signature: a cryptographic seal, made with the certificate's private key, that shows whether the PDF has been changed since it was signed. It is added after the end of the file, so signatures already in the PDF stay intact. Open a digitally signed PDF and its signatures are checked and listed.
What you can do Sign a PDF by drawing your signature with a mouse, trackpad or finger, in blue or black ink Type your name as a signature in one of three handwriting fonts Upload a photo of your signature on paper, with the paper removed so only the ink is placed Drag, resize and place a signature as many times as the document needs Add today’s date, typed text and ticks anywhere on the page Fill in the form fields a PDF already has, and lock the answers when you save Turn a plain PDF into a fillable form with text boxes, multi-line boxes, checkboxes, dropdowns and radio buttons Remember up to six signatures in this browser, only if you choose to Digitally sign a PDF with your own .pfx or .p12 certificate (RSA or EC keys), visibly in a box on the page or invisibly, as a standard PAdES signature, the kind Adobe Acrobat and Reader check Add a second digital signature to a PDF that is already signed, without breaking the first Check a signed PDF's digital signatures: whether each is intact, whether the file was changed after it, and what its certificate says Works with any PDF that is not encrypted, including scanned documents and ones with form fields. An encrypted PDF is refused even if it opens without a password and only restricts editing Shows the first 200 pages of a longer PDF to sign on; the saved file keeps every page How to sign a PDF for free Drop the PDF onto the page, or click to choose it. Press Add signature and draw, type or upload it. Click on the page where it should go, then drag it into place and pull the corner to size it. Add the date or text the same way. Fill in any form fields listed above the pages, and press Save signed PDF. How to digitally sign a PDF with a certificate Open the PDF, then open Digital signature with a certificate above the pages. Choose your .pfx or .p12 file, type its password and press Open certificate. Check the name and dates it shows. Add a reason or location if you want, and choose an invisible signature or a box on the page - press Place the signature box and click where it goes. Press Sign digitally and save. The signed copy is checked again before it is saved. Questions about signing
Is my signature saved anywhere? Only if you tick Remember my signatures, and then only in this browser's own storage on this device - it is never sent anywhere. Untick it, or press the small cross on a saved signature, and it is removed.
Is an electronic signature legally binding? In most countries a signature applied like this is valid for most everyday agreements - the US ESIGN Act and the EU's eIDAS regulation both recognise simple electronic signatures - but some documents, such as wills or property deeds in many places, need more. If it matters, check what the other party or the law requires.
Can the other person tell the PDF was changed? The signature and anything else you added are drawn onto the page as images, the way a printer would put them there, and the rest of the document is left as it was. Form answers are written into the PDF's own fields, and stay editable unless you choose to lock them.
How do I digitally sign a PDF with a certificate for free? Open the PDF here, open Digital signature with a certificate, and load your certificate file (.pfx or .p12, exported with its private key) with its password. The certificate's name, issuer and dates are shown, with a warning if it has expired or is not meant for signing. Then sign: the page writes a PAdES signature (SHA-256, with your certificate chain inside) as an incremental update. The certificate file and password never leave your device and are not stored. No timestamp from a timestamp server is added, so the signing time is your computer's clock, and no long-term validation data is added.
Can I check a PDF's digital signature? Yes. Open a signed PDF and each signature is listed: whether the bytes it covers are unchanged and match the certificate inside it, whether the file was changed after it was signed (a later signature or form filling is the normal reason), the signing time it claims, and the names and dates in the certificate. What this page cannot confirm is who really owns a certificate - anyone can make one with any name in it. Adobe Acrobat and Reader check that against lists of trusted certificate authorities.
Will a self-made certificate be trusted? A self-signed certificate signs just as well, and the signature still shows whether the file changed afterwards, but PDF readers show it as from an unknown signer unless the recipient chooses to trust that certificate. For a signature readers trust automatically, the certificate has to come from a certificate authority on Adobe's or the EU's trusted lists.
Can I turn a plain PDF into a form other people can fill in? Yes. Choose a field type under Add a fillable field - text, multi-line text, checkbox, dropdown or radio button - and drag out a box on the page, or click to drop one at a standard size. Each field gets a name you can change; a dropdown takes its choices one per line, and radio buttons that share a group name are one question with one answer. Fields can be moved, resized and deleted until you save, and are written into the file as standard PDF form fields. Dropdown choices are drawn in the standard PDF form font, so they are limited to Western European letters, as are answers typed into the fields on this page. Create a fillable PDF form Open the Create a fillable form tab
A fillable PDF has form fields: boxes that anyone can click into and type in with Adobe Reader, the PDF viewer in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, or Preview on a Mac, then save or print with their answers. Making one usually means a paid desktop editor, or an online form builder that wants an account, puts a watermark on the result or only shares the form as a link. This page adds real fields to your own PDF and saves a copy you keep, free. Forms are full of names, addresses and dates of birth, so it matters that the PDF is read and rewritten in your browser, never uploaded.
On a form that was typed rather than scanned, Find fields automatically reads the text and drawing of each page and proposes a field wherever there is a blank: a line of underscores or dots, an empty line to write on, an empty box, a table cell left blank, or a small square or ☐ to tick. Each one is named from the words beside it, so the field after "Date of birth" is called Date of birth, and a line labelled Signature becomes a signature box. Fields the PDF already has are shown too, and can be renamed, moved, set up or deleted without losing their scripts or formats.
What you can do Find the blanks in a typed form automatically and turn them into named fields Add text boxes, multi-line boxes, checkboxes, dropdowns, radio buttons and signature boxes Set a field as required or read-only, give it a tooltip, a character limit, a text size, an alignment or text already filled in Rename, move, resize, set up or delete the fields a PDF already has Copy a field you add to every page, as one field: what is typed in one shows in all Set the tab order, by hand or by position on the page Open a PDF that has editing restrictions; they are taken off so fields can be added How to create a fillable PDF Drop the PDF onto the page, or click browse to choose it. A form written in Word? Save it as PDF first, or use Word to PDF . Press Find fields automatically. The proposals have dashed outlines: press Looks right to keep them, or Remove them all to start by hand. Click a field to check it: fix its Name, change its Kind, drag it, or pull its corner to resize. Arrow keys nudge it a point at a time (Shift for 10), and Delete removes it. Add anything it missed: choose Text, Multi-line text, Checkbox, Dropdown, Radio button or Signature, then drag a box on the page, or click to drop one at a standard size. Press Done when finished. In Fields in tab order, press Order by position or move fields with the arrows, so Tab goes through the form in reading order. Press Save fillable PDF. The copy is saved with "(fillable)" in its name; open it and try filling it in. Choosing the right kind of field Text is one line - a name, a date, a postcode; give it a Character limit for things like a reference number. Multi-line text wraps, for an address or comments. Checkbox is one yes-or-no tick. Radio button is one choice from several: each click adds an option to the same group, and buttons that share a name clear each other. Dropdown holds a list of choices, one per line. Signature marks where to sign. Text size Auto lets the reader shrink long answers to fit the box.
Questions about creating a form
Does it work on a scanned form? Not the automatic part. A scanned page is a picture, and finding fields reads the text and lines a typed PDF is made of. You can still add every field by hand, by drawing a box where each answer goes.
How is this different from Adobe Acrobat's Prepare Form? It does the same core job, finding fields and letting you edit them, and it is free without a trial or an account. Acrobat goes further with calculated fields, number and date formats, and scripts, which this does not add. Fields a PDF already has keep any of those when you move them or change their settings here; renaming one can break a calculation or script that refers to it by its old name.
Will the form work in every PDF reader? The fields are standard AcroForm fields, which Adobe Acrobat and Reader, the viewers in Chrome, Edge and Firefox, Preview on a Mac and most phone apps fill in. Text typed into new fields uses the standard PDF form font, which covers Western European letters. What does a signature box do? It marks where the person filling in the form should sign. In Adobe Acrobat and Reader, clicking it starts a digital signature. Other readers show it as a box. To sign a PDF yourself, use Sign PDF .
Can I put the same field, like a name or date, on every page? Yes. Click a field you added and press Copy to every page. The copies are one field in the PDF, so a name typed on page 1 appears on every page at once. Fields the PDF already had cannot be copied this way. Does it work with a PDF that has a password? A PDF that opens without a password but blocks editing is opened anyway, and the restriction is taken off the copy you save. One that needs a password to open has to be unlocked first with Unlock PDF , which needs the password. My form only shows "Please wait..." - what is wrong? That is an XFA form, an older Adobe format most viewers cannot show. The page says so when it finds one: open it in the XFA Form Filler instead.