Electronic Signatures
By the Syncfusion DevTutorials team · Last updated
Create a signature by drawing, typing, or uploading it, place it on a PDF, resize, update, and remove it, then complete and sign a job application in the Chapter 5 project.
Many everyday documents need your signature, including job offers, permission slips, and delivery notes. An electronic signature lets you place a drawn, typed, or uploaded signature directly on a PDF, without printing and scanning it. In this lesson, you'll create, place, resize, change, and remove an electronic signature, and learn how it differs from a digital signature. You'll practise by completing and signing a job application in the Chapter 5 project.
Electronic and digital signatures
People use these two terms as if they were the same, but they're not:
| Electronic signature | Digital signature | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A drawn, typed, or uploaded image of your signature, placed on the page | A signature checked with a digital certificate, an electronic credential that helps verify who signed and whether the file changed afterward |
| How it's made | In a PDF viewer | With a digital certificate from a provider, or through a signing service |
| Typical use | Everyday forms, permission slips, delivery notes, many contracts | Legal and government documents, high-value contracts |
| Shown as | Your signature on the page | A signature with a "Signed and all signatures are valid" banner or panel |
Whether an electronic signature is accepted depends on the document and the rules that apply where it is used. If the document gives signing instructions, follow them. For an important agreement, check which type of signature is required.
Signing services such as Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign send a document to each signer, collect electronic signatures in order, and add a record of who signed and when. You'll often receive documents to sign this way: the steps are the same as in this lesson.
This lesson focuses on electronic signatures, which you create and place in the PDF viewer like other annotations.
Create a signature
Creating a signature is quick and straightforward:
- Click Edit Annotation in the toolbar.
- Click the arrow on the signature button (the pen nib) and choose Add Signature. The Add Signature window opens, with three tabs:
Here is what each of the three tabs offers:
| Tab | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Draw | Sign with the mouse, a touchpad, or a stylus in the box | A signature that looks handwritten |
| Type | Type your name in Enter your name, then click one of the font styles shown | A neat signature without a stylus |
| Upload | Choose a photo or scan of your real signature | Matching your paper signature exactly |
- Create your signature, and click Create. Click Clear to start again.
Tick Save Signature to keep it for next time, so you don't have to draw it again. Add Initial works the same way, for documents that ask you to initial each page.
Add a signature
After you click Create, the signature follows your mouse pointer:
- Go to the page and place where the document asks you to sign, usually a line marked Signature near the end.
- Click to place the signature there.
A placed signature is a signature annotation: it sits on top of the page, like the comments and drawings in Chapter 4.
Read everything before you sign: every page, the small print, and the declaration above the signature line. Your signature says you agree with all of it.
Resize and move a signature
A new signature is often too small or in slightly the wrong place:
- Click the signature to select it. Square handles appear around it.
- Resize it by dragging a corner handle outwards (bigger) or inwards (smaller). Corner handles keep its shape.
- Move it by dragging from the middle.
A signature should sit on the signature line, at about the size of a handwritten one.
Update a signature
Beyond size and position, you can also change a placed signature's appearance. To change how a placed signature looks, select it and use the Edit Annotation toolbar: Change Stroke Color (for example, dark blue, like ink), Change Border Thickness, or Change Opacity.
To use a different signature, remove the old one and add the new one.
Remove a signature
If you no longer need a signature, you can remove it at any time. Click the signature to select it, then press Delete, or click Delete annotation (the bin). Ctrl + Z brings it back if you deleted it by mistake.
Never put your signature on a PDF someone else could reuse, such as a blank template or a public web page. Sign only the specific document you mean to sign, and only send it to the people who need it.
Common mistakes
| Mistake | What happens | How to fix it |
|---|---|---|
| Signature placed on the wrong page | The signature line is empty | Delete it and add it again on the right page |
| Signature covers printed text | Parts of the document can't be read | Move or resize it |
| Signing before filling in the form | You sign a form that's still incomplete | Fill every field first, then sign last |
| Forgetting to save | The signature is lost | Download the signed PDF |
| Dragging a side handle | The signature is squashed | Undo; drag a corner instead |
Exercise
Here is your chance to sign a real document yourself.
Click Open the practice PDF below to open the Application for Employment. Go to page 2, Declaration, where the signature goes. Then do each task and press Check.
Chapter project
Put Chapter 5 together. You're applying for a job as a Visitor Guide at the Riverton Visitor Centre. Fill in both pages of the application, sign the declaration, submit it, and keep a copy.
Job Application Form
What to remember
- An electronic signature is your signature placed on the page; a digital signature adds a certificate proving who signed and that nothing changed.
- Edit Annotation > signature button > Add Signature: Draw, Type, or Upload, then Create and click to place.
- Select a signature to resize (corner handles), move, recolor, or delete it.
- Read everything first; sign last, on the signature line.
- Download the signed PDF and keep a copy.
That's the end of Chapter 5. In Chapter 6, you'll print PDFs and save and share them.