How to sign a PDF on your iPhone

Someone sends you a PDF and needs it signed and back today. You don’t need a printer for that, and you don’t need a scanner. You can do the whole thing on your iPhone.

This guide uses Fill & Sign in myPDF. We make myPDF, so it’s the tool we know best. Signing works in the app without Pro.

What you need

• An iPhone or iPad on iOS 16 or newer.
• The myPDF app.
• The PDF itself. If it came as an email attachment, save it to Files first so it’s easy to find.

If the form only exists on paper, scan it with myPDF first. The scanner finds the edges of the page and takes several pages in one go, so you end up with a clean PDF you can sign.

How to sign a PDF on iPhone, step by step

1. Open the PDF in myPDF.
2. Tap Fill & Sign in the bar at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap New. The Signatures panel opens.
4. Sign in the box with your finger or Apple Pencil. If it comes out wrong, tap Clear and try again.
5. Tap Save. The signature goes onto the page.
6. Move and resize it. Drag it onto the signature line. Pull the corner handle to make it bigger or smaller. Tap it and choose Delete if you want to start over.

That’s it. Send the signed PDF back the usual way, by email or wherever the other person asked for it.

Fill in the rest of the form

Most forms want more than a signature. Usually it’s your printed name, the date, and sometimes an address or an ID number.

Tap Add text, then tap the place on the page where the text should go and type. Do this once per field. Text boxes can be moved and deleted the same way as signatures.

This is also how you fill out a PDF form on your phone when it has no fillable fields. You put the text exactly where it needs to be, like you would with a pen. For forms with real fields, see how to fill out a PDF form on your iPhone.

Use a photo of your signature instead

Some people don’t like how their signature looks when drawn with a finger. That’s fair. It rarely looks like the one on paper.

myPDF can take your signature from a photo instead. Pick the photo of your signature on paper and frame it. Only the ink is kept: the paper around it becomes transparent, so the signature sits on the document like one signed with a pen, with no white box. If the photo has no clear ink, it is kept as it was. Then place it like a drawn one.

To get a good photo:

• Sign on plain white paper with a dark pen.
• Take the photo in daylight or under a bright lamp, straight from above.
• Frame it close to the signature, so nothing else on the paper ends up in it.

Next time, skip the drawing

Once you’ve added a signature, it’s saved and shows up next to New and Add text at the bottom. The next time you sign something, tap it and it goes onto the page. No drawing it again.

If you saved one you don’t like, tap the small red x on it to remove it.

Tips for a clean result

• Draw big. Use the whole box when you draw, then make it smaller on the page. A large drawing scaled down looks steadier than a small one.
• Use a stylus if you have one. On an iPad with a pencil, the lines come out closer to real ink.
• Check the whole page before you save. Make sure the signature sits on the line and the date is in the right box.
• Keep an unsigned copy if you might need it. If you think you’ll need a clean version later, make a copy before you sign.

What this can’t do

It’s worth being clear about one thing. What you add in Fill & Sign is your handwritten signature placed on the page. It is not a certificate-based digital signature, the kind issued through a bank, an employer’s system or a government ID.

For most everyday paperwork that’s fine. Think of a lease, a permission slip, a job offer or an invoice. But if the form says it needs a “qualified” or “certified” digital signature, this isn’t that. Ask whoever sent it which kind they accept.

Also, these steps are written for iPhone and iPad. myPDF is on Google Play too, but the screens there may look different.

Quick recap

Open the PDF in myPDF, tap Fill & Sign, draw or upload your signature, place it, add any text the form needs, and save. The second time is faster, because your signature is already saved.