How to fill and sign a PDF form

Fillable form or flat form?

Open the PDF and click on a blank. If a text cursor appears in a box, or the blanks are highlighted in blue or yellow, the form is fillable: someone built fields into it. If clicking does nothing, it is flat, just lines printed on a page, often because it was scanned.

Fillable forms are easy anywhere. Flat forms need a tool that can place free text on top of the page.

Filling a fillable form

Every common PDF viewer handles standard form fields.

• Mac: Preview. Click a field and type. Tick boxes with a click.
• Windows: Microsoft Edge or Acrobat Reader. Click and type, then Save.
• Any computer: Chrome's built-in PDF viewer fills fields; use the download button to save the filled copy.
• Android: in the Google Drive app, open the PDF and tap Edit, then Form filling. Google notes scanned and XFA forms are not supported.
• iPhone: open in Files and tap the fields, or use Markup.

Filling a flat or scanned form

In Acrobat Reader, choose Fill & Sign and click anywhere on the page to start typing; Reader also has tick and cross marks for checkboxes. In Preview, click the Text button in the Markup toolbar, then drag the box onto the line. On iPhone, Markup's Add button has a Text option.

Match the font size to the form so your answers sit on the lines, and zoom in to check alignment before saving.

Signing once it is filled

Add your signature with the same tool: Sign in Preview, Sign yourself in Acrobat Reader's Fill & Sign, Draw in Edge, or Add Signature in Markup. Put the date beside it with a text box. Save, and if you want to stop the answers being changed easily, use File > Export as PDF on a Mac or Print > Save as PDF to flatten the fields into the page.

Sending a form for someone else to fill and sign

This is the common need for HR teams, schools and clinics: a new starter form, a permission slip, a consent form. Upload the PDF to Sign PDF and we detect the form fields already in it and keep them. We add signature, date and name boxes, and you can add more: free text, checkbox, email, company and job title. Each field is assigned to a signer.

If the form is flat, we read the labels beside each line ('Full name', 'Date of birth', 'Emergency contact') and place text boxes for them. The signer fills each one in the browser, signs, and you receive the completed PDF with a certificate of completion. We do not offer standalone web forms or bulk sending, so for a form going to hundreds of people a forms product may suit you better.