How to Sign a PDF 2021

Elise Williams

2021-03-09 17:27:46 • Filed to: How-To • Proven solutions

PDF is the most widely used format for contracts, receipts and invoices in the modern business world. It's often necessary to sign and send your PDF contracts and important files to partners and clients. Signing a PDF document electronically or digitally saves you a lot of time. In this article, we'll show you how to sign a PDF document for Windows with PDFelement.

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How to Sign PDF File

Step 1. Open PDF

Launch PDFelement on your computer and then load the PDF that you want to add a signature to. You can either click the "Open files" button on the "Home" window or go to "File > Open" to import your file.

Step 2. Sign PDF with Handwriting

You can use your handwritten signature by signing your name on a piece of blank paper and scanning it, or simply take a snapshot of it. Save that snapshot as an image. In the "Comment" tab, click "Custom Stamp" by opening the "Create" drop-down list. Then simply select your handwritten signature and click "Save" to create the stamp. Then you can place it on the PDF.

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Step 3. Sign PDF with Digital Signature (Optional)

To digitally sign a PDF, you need to navigate to the "Protect" tab and click "Sign Document". If you don't have a digital ID, create one with your name or email address. When you are finished, it will lead you back to "Sign Document" with your ID info displayed in the box. Click "Sign" and then your signature will be added to the PDF file.

Video on How to Sign PDF

Not only can you use PDFelement to insert a PDF signature, but it also comes with many features such as viewing, creating, editing, protecting, converting, and sharing PDF files. With it, you can create and add e-signatures and encrypted digital signatures, making the procedure stress-free and also speeding up your workflow with your co-workers, clients, and partners.

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PDFelement is a well-designed and well-presented application that offers various wide-ranging editing features, allowing for modification of text, the addition of graphics, and more. This wonderful PDF editor is also capable of performing conversion between PDF files and many other kinds of files including all the standard Microsoft Office file formats.

Other Software to Sign PDF

1. Adobe^® Acrobat^®

Adobe^® Acrobat^® enables you to edit, fill, sign, and share your PDF documents in various platforms. You can edit text and images in PDF documents, create new PDFs, export PDF to other file formats and track PDFs from anywhere. Its signature tools help you sign a PDF either with a handwritten signature image or with a certified digital signature.

Since Adobe has already stopped supporting Acrobat XI in 2017, you won't receive any further updates from Adobe. In this case, it's better for you to find out the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat.

2. Nitro Pro

Nitro Pro is integrated with PDF editing, converting, and creation features. You can edit all kinds of PDF documents, convert PDF to other file formats, or vice versa. Additionally, digital signatures can be used to protect your PDFs.

3. Foxit Reader

Foxit not only lets you convert files to and from PDF, but it also lets you view PDF files through an intuitive interface. It lets you sign PDFs digitally to improve document security, through the one downside is that it only has a Windows version.

4. PDFpen

PDFpen allows you to export, edit, and sign PDFs without effort. It provides multiple methods to sign PDFs. You can choose to add a hand-written signature with the trackpad or a digital signature. What's more, you can edit text, correct content, fill out forms, and extract important information by OCR to turn a scanned document into a selectable and editable file. It has a macOS version as well.