Will my signed PDF look worse than the original?

For structural operations — merging, splitting, rotating, watermarking, signing and text editing — there is no quality change whatsoever. For operations that render pages, such as image conversion and non-lossless compression, quality is a setting you control, and the trade-off is explained on the tool's own page.

Will the text still be selectable and searchable?

Yes, for every structural operation. Text is only lost when a tool deliberately renders pages to pixels, which is limited to image conversion, compression above the Lossless level, and Word to PDF.

Do embedded fonts survive?

Yes. When pages are copied between documents, the fonts they depend on are copied with them, so the output renders identically on a device that does not have those fonts installed.

Is this a legally binding electronic signature?

It is a typed signature, not a cryptographic digital signature backed by a certificate. Many jurisdictions accept typed signatures for everyday agreements where both parties intend to be bound, but this tool makes no legal guarantee. If you need a qualified electronic signature with an audit trail and identity verification, use a dedicated e-signature service.

Can I draw my signature or upload an image of it?

Not yet — the tool currently places typed text. Drawn and image-based signatures are a planned addition.

Where exactly is the signature placed?

At the bottom right of the chosen page, inset from the edge, with a horizontal rule drawn directly beneath it. The horizontal position is calculated from the width of your name so it never runs off the page.

Can I sign more than one page?

One page per run. To sign several pages, run the tool again on the file you just downloaded, choosing a different page each time.

Can other people tell the document was signed here?

No branding, watermark or metadata identifying this tool is added. The signed file contains your document and your signature and nothing else.

Sign PDF Without Losing Quality

Add a typed signature to a document and download it straight away.

Drop your PDF file here

or browse your device

A single PDF file, up to 100 MB. Files are processed on this device.

Quality loss in PDF tools comes from one thing: re-rendering. If a tool converts your pages into pictures and rebuilds the document from those, text goes soft, fine lines pick up artefacts, and the file often gets bigger rather than smaller. This tool avoids that wherever the operation allows it.

Where possible, pages are copied between documents as structured objects. Text stays as text — selectable, searchable and sharp at any zoom level. Embedded fonts travel with the pages that use them. Vector graphics stay vector, so a diagram is just as crisp at 400 per cent as it is at 100.

Images inside your document keep their original encoding and resolution. They are not decoded and re-encoded, which means no generational JPEG loss — the softening that accumulates every time an image is saved again through a lossy format.

Most documents that need signing do not need a cryptographic certificate — they need a name on a line so the other party can see who agreed to what. Internal approvals, delivery notes, consent forms and simple agreements all fall into this category, and printing, signing and rescanning them is a waste of an afternoon.

This tool types your signature onto the page in an italic face, draws a rule beneath it the way a printed signature block reads, and hands the document back. Sign the last page by default, or name any page in the document.

How to sign a PDF file

Add your PDF
Drop in the document that needs signing.
Type your signature
Enter your name as you want it to appear on the document.
Choose the page
Leave the page at 0 to sign the last page, which is where signature blocks usually live, or enter a specific page number.
Set the size
16 point suits most documents. Increase it if the signature needs to stand out.
Sign and download
Press Sign PDF, check the placement in the preview, and download the signed copy.

Why use this sign pdf tool

Text stays text

Structural operations keep text selectable and searchable, and sharp at every zoom level, because it is never converted into an image.

No generational loss

Images keep their original encoding rather than being decoded and re-compressed, so no softening accumulates.

Vectors stay vector

Diagrams, charts and line art keep their mathematical definition and stay crisp at any magnification.

No printing or scanning

The signature goes straight onto the digital file, so the document never has to leave the screen and never loses quality to a scanner.

It looks like a signature block

The name is set in an italic face with a rule underneath, sized to the text, rather than being dropped onto the page as plain body copy.

Sign any page

Signature blocks are usually on the last page, which is the default, but you can name any page when yours is somewhere else.

Features

Typed signatureSet in Helvetica Oblique with a rule drawn beneath it.
Any pageSign the last page by default or specify one.
Adjustable sizeFrom 8 to 48 point.
Bottom-right placementPositioned where signature blocks conventionally sit.
Preview before downloadConfirm the placement before committing.

When people use this

Approving an internal document

Sign off a policy, a purchase request or a timesheet without the print-sign-scan round trip.

Returning a simple agreement

Add your name to a straightforward contract and send it back the same day.

Acknowledging receipt

Sign a delivery note or handover document and return it as a PDF.

Completing a consent form

Fill in a school, medical or membership form and return it digitally.

Where quality is genuinely lost, and where it is not

Structural operations — merging, splitting, rotating, watermarking, signing and adding text — involve no quality loss at all. They read the document's objects, rearrange or add to them, and write them back. What comes out is what went in, with your change applied.

Rendering operations are a different matter, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. Converting to JPG or PNG produces pixels, so resolution is a choice you make rather than something preserved. Compressing at anything above the Lossless level deliberately re-renders pages, which is precisely how the size reduction is achieved.

Word to PDF sits in between: the document is laid out and rendered visually, so the output is a faithful picture of your document rather than selectable text. Every one of these trade-offs is stated on the tool's own page rather than glossed over.

The rule of thumb is straightforward. If an operation changes the structure of a document, quality is preserved completely. If it changes the pixels, there is a trade-off, and you are the one who chooses where it sits.

How signing works

The document is loaded with pdf-lib and Helvetica Oblique is embedded. The tool measures the width of your name at the chosen point size, positions it so it sits inset from the right edge of the page with a guaranteed minimum left margin, and draws it into the page content stream.

A thin horizontal line is then drawn immediately below the text, spanning exactly the width of the name. Nothing else on the page is altered, and the rest of the document is written back unchanged.

Privacy

Your files are not uploaded. When you add a PDF file, your browser reads it from your device into the memory of the tab you are looking at, and the sign pdf operation runs there using your own processor. Nothing is transmitted to any server at any point.

That means there is no file for anyone to store, no retention policy to trust, and no deletion schedule to take on faith. The document exists only in the memory of an open browser tab, and it is released the moment you close it, reload the page, or press start over.

The site uses standard anonymous analytics to count page views and how often each tool is used. Those events record which tool ran and whether it succeeded — never a file name, never file contents, and never anything that could identify a document or the person processing it.

No account is required, so no personal information is collected. There is no profile, no history and nothing tied to an identity, because no identity was ever created.

Security

The strongest security property this tool has is structural: your file never travels anywhere, so there is no transmission to intercept and no server-side copy to breach. This is not a policy that could change — it is a consequence of where the code runs.

You can verify it in about thirty seconds. Open your browser's developer tools with F12, select the Network tab, and use the tool. You will see the page's scripts load — including the PDF libraries, which are fetched on demand the first time a tool runs — and then nothing further. No request carrying your document is ever made.

For a stronger test, disconnect from the network once the page has loaded. The tool will keep working exactly as before, which is only possible because nothing is being sent.

Uploaded files are validated in the browser before anything runs: the extension must match what the tool accepts, the file must not be empty, and it must be within the size limit. Malformed documents produce a clear error and a retry option rather than a silent failure.

What this tool does not do

Being clear about limits is more useful than a feature list that quietly omits them. Typed signatures only, one page per run, with no cryptographic signing, certificate, timestamp or audit trail.

If you need capabilities beyond that — redaction, PDF/A conformance, OCR, or scripted batch processing across thousands of documents — dedicated desktop software genuinely earns its licence fee, and this is not trying to replace it. For the specific job of producing a signed PDF, everything you need is on this page.

Frequently asked questions

Will my signed PDF look worse than the original?: For structural operations — merging, splitting, rotating, watermarking, signing and text editing — there is no quality change whatsoever. For operations that render pages, such as image conversion and non-lossless compression, quality is a setting you control, and the trade-off is explained on the tool's own page.
Will the text still be selectable and searchable?: Yes, for every structural operation. Text is only lost when a tool deliberately renders pages to pixels, which is limited to image conversion, compression above the Lossless level, and Word to PDF.
Do embedded fonts survive?: Yes. When pages are copied between documents, the fonts they depend on are copied with them, so the output renders identically on a device that does not have those fonts installed.
Is this a legally binding electronic signature?: It is a typed signature, not a cryptographic digital signature backed by a certificate. Many jurisdictions accept typed signatures for everyday agreements where both parties intend to be bound, but this tool makes no legal guarantee. If you need a qualified electronic signature with an audit trail and identity verification, use a dedicated e-signature service.
Can I draw my signature or upload an image of it?: Not yet — the tool currently places typed text. Drawn and image-based signatures are a planned addition.
Where exactly is the signature placed?: At the bottom right of the chosen page, inset from the edge, with a horizontal rule drawn directly beneath it. The horizontal position is calculated from the width of your name so it never runs off the page.
Can I sign more than one page?: One page per run. To sign several pages, run the tool again on the file you just downloaded, choosing a different page each time.
Can other people tell the document was signed here?: No branding, watermark or metadata identifying this tool is added. The signed file contains your document and your signature and nothing else.

Browse every PDF tool, or read the help and FAQ pages. Details of how files are handled are in the privacy policy.