Someone has emailed you a PDF that needs a signature, and you're nowhere near a printer. You don't need one. You can open the file in your phone's browser, put your signature on it with your finger, and send it back in a couple of minutes.
This guide uses Fill & sign on EddiesPDF. There's no app to install, and the file stays on your phone the whole time.
Getting the PDF into your phone's browser
The awkward part on a phone is usually finding the file, not signing it.
If the PDF arrived by email, tap the attachment and save it first. On an iPhone, that's the share button and then "Save to Files". On Android, the download usually lands in the Downloads folder. Then open Fill & sign in Safari or Chrome, tap the upload box and pick the file from Files or Downloads. If it's in Google Drive, you can import it from there instead.
Very large PDFs can be slow on a phone, because all the work happens in the phone's memory. A normal contract of 5 to 30 pages is no problem.
Draw, type or upload your signature
Tap "Add signature" and you get three ways to make one.
- "Draw" lets you sign with your finger. Turn the phone sideways for more room. It won't look exactly like your pen signature (nobody's finger signature does), but it's recognisably yours.
- "Type" writes your name in a script font. It's tidy, but it looks like what it is. Some people are fine with it, some aren't.
- "Upload" takes a photo of your real signature (PNG, JPG or WebP).
Upload gives the best result if you do it properly. Sign a plain sheet of white paper with a dark pen, take a photo of it in good light, and crop it as tightly as you can. The photo goes on the page as it is, paper and all, so whatever paper is left shows as a rectangle around the ink. If you have a PNG of your signature with a transparent background, use that instead. And if the photo was taken in dim light, the paper looks grey or yellow, so a window with daylight beats the kitchen at night.
Placing it, plus the date and initials
Once you've made the signature, tap the page where it should go. Drag it to move it and drag the round handle to make it bigger or smaller. Zooming in on the page first makes it much easier to line up with the signature line.
Most forms also want a date next to the signature. Use "Add date" and tap the spot. The menu next to it sets the format: MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, "Oct 1, 2026", "1 October 2026", or one with the time included. Pick whatever matches the country the document comes from. A US form expecting 10/04/2026 will confuse someone if you give it 04/10/2026.
Contracts often ask you to initial every page. Tap "Initials", make them the same way as the signature, and place them once on the first page. Then tap the placed initials and choose "Copy to all pages". They're added in the same spot on every page, which saves a lot of tapping on a 20-page lease.
You can also use "Add text" for your name or address, and the marks ("Checkmark", "X mark", "Bullet") for tick boxes that aren't real form fields. If the PDF has proper fillable fields, they're highlighted and you can type straight into them.
When you're done:
- Check every page for a missed initial or empty field.
- If the PDF has form fields, tick "Flatten form".
- Tap "Apply and continue".
- Preview the result, then download it or save it to Google Drive.
- Attach the downloaded file to your reply.
What flattening does and when to bother
The signature, date and text you place are drawn into the page itself. They're not floating objects that someone can drag off later.
Fillable form fields are different. If you typed your answers into a PDF form, those answers still live in fields, and anyone who opens the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Preview on a Mac can click in and change them. "Flatten form" turns the fields into ordinary page content, so the answers can't be edited any more. I'd tick it for anything you're signing and sending back. The only reason not to is if the other side still needs to fill in their part of the form.
If you've received a PDF with comments or stamps that also need locking down, Flatten PDF has more options.
Is a signature drawn on a PDF legally valid
For most everyday paperwork, yes. Rental agreements, freelance contracts, school forms, consent forms and offer letters are routinely signed this way, and in many countries the law treats an electronic signature as valid as long as you intended to sign.
But not everything. Some documents need a certified electronic signature (a qualified signature in the EU, for example) or a wet-ink signature on paper. Wills, property deeds, some court filings and notarised documents often fall into that group, and the rules vary by country. A signature drawn on a PDF on your phone doesn't carry any identity check or certificate.
If you're not sure, ask whoever sent you the document what they accept. They've dealt with it before and they'll know.
When other people need to sign too
Fill & sign is for you signing a document yourself. If you're the one collecting signatures from a landlord, a client or two co-founders, use Request signature instead. You add each person's name and email, place the fields they need to fill in, and each of them gets a private link to sign. Note that this one does upload the PDF to our server so the signers can open it, and it doesn't produce an audit trail certificate, so it's for everyday agreements rather than regulated ones. There's more on that in the guide to requesting signatures online.
Open the downloaded copy in Files (or your Downloads app on Android) and scroll through it once before replying. A signature floating halfway down the page is quicker to redo than to explain.
Also useful: Request signature · Flatten PDF
