How to sign a PDF on Windows

Signing with Microsoft Edge

Edge is the default PDF viewer on most Windows PCs, so double-clicking a PDF usually opens it there. If not, right-click the file, choose Open with and pick Microsoft Edge.

At the top of the page there is a PDF toolbar. Click Draw, and use the small arrow beside it to choose a dark ink colour and a thin stroke. Sign on the signature line with your mouse, a touchscreen or a Surface Pen. Click Erase to remove a stroke and try again. When you are happy, click Save (or Save as to keep the original) in the toolbar.

Edge's Add text button lets you type the date and your printed name next to the signature. Edge does not keep a saved signature, so you redraw it each time, and some users have reported drawings not saving in particular versions. Reopen the saved file to check before you send it.

Signing with Adobe Acrobat Reader

Acrobat Reader is free from Adobe and gives a cleaner result if you sign often. Open the PDF, choose Fill & Sign (in the right-hand pane, or under All tools in newer versions), then Sign yourself or Add signature.

You can type your name and pick a style, draw with the mouse, or import an image of your signature on white paper. Reader saves it for next time. Click on the page to place it, drag to adjust, and save. Adobe's menu labels shift between versions, so if you cannot find Fill & Sign, search the tools list for it.

Mouse signatures look bad. Here is what helps

Drawing a signature with a mouse rarely looks like your real one. Better options: sign on paper with a black pen, photograph it in daylight, crop it tight, and import it into Acrobat Reader as an image. Or use a laptop touchscreen or pen. Typing your name in a script font is also legally fine for most documents; what matters is that you intended to sign.

Sending a PDF from Windows for someone else to sign

Edge and Reader only help with your own signature. When you need a client, tenant or new hire to sign, there are two weak ways and one sound one. The weak ways are emailing the PDF and asking them to print, sign and scan it back, or asking them to sign in Edge and return it. Either way you get a file with nothing showing who signed it or whether it was altered.

The sound way is an e-signature service. In Sign PDF you upload the PDF or Word file, we place the signature, initials and date boxes and assign them to each signer, and you send. Signers verify their email with a six-digit code and sign in their browser. The completed PDF includes a certificate of completion with each signer's IP address, device and signing time, and a seal that breaks if anyone edits the file. It costs $5 a month for two documents or $10 for unlimited.