How to Electronically Sign PDF Documents

An electronic signature is just an electronic replica of your normal signature that you can create with the help of a pen. The only difference is that you do not need a pen and paper to create an electronic signature rather you can do it simply with the help of your computer system.

Why is Electronic Signature Needed?

Imagine a scenario in which you are the manager of an organization and are away from your office for vacations. Meanwhile, there comes an important PDF document from one of your clients and they immediately need your signatures. You cannot go back to your office in an emergency because you are far away. Moreover, if your employees take a printout of that document, send it over to you somehow, you sign that document and send it back to your client then this will be a very time-consuming process. Here, the electronic signature comes into play. You can simply ask your employees to forward you your client’s document. You can electronically sign it and send it back to them. In this article, we will learn how to electronically sign PDF documents.

How to Electronically Sign PDF Documents?

In this method, we will explain to you how you can electronically sign the PDF documents even without having the need for printing or scanning them. For doing this, you will need to perform the following steps:

1. Locate the PDF document that you want to sign electronically and right click on it in order to launch a cascading menu as shown in the following image:

2. Select the Open With option from the cascading menu and then choose Adobe Acrobat Reader DC option from the sub-cascading menu as highlighted in the image shown above.
3. As soon as you will select this option, your PDF document will open with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC. Now select the Fill and Sign option from the right pane of the Adobe Acrobat Reader window as highlighted in the image shown below:

4. Click on the Sign option given on the Fill and Sign ribbon as shown in the following image:

5. Now select the Add Signature option from the Sign dropdown list as highlighted in the image shown below:

6. As soon as you will click on this, you will be presented with the following three options: Type, Draw or Image. Click on the Draw option as shown in the following image:

7. After selecting the Draw option, just drag your mouse across your screen in order to create your signatures as highlighted in the image shown below:

8. Check the checkbox corresponding to the Save Signature field if you wish to use the same signatures later on and then click on the Apply button as highlighted in the image shown above.
9. After creating your signatures, drag and drop them at an appropriate position on your PDF document as shown in the following image:

10. When you have correctly positioned your signatures, click on the File tab from the menu bar of your Adobe Acrobat Reader and then click on the Save option from the cascading menu as highlighted in the image shown below:

11. Now choose an appropriate location for saving your electronically signed document as shown in the following image:

12. Finally, click on the Save button as highlighted in the image shown below:

13. In order to view your electronically signed PDF document, just double click on it. It is shown in the following image:

Signing the documents has never been so easy before the discovery of electronic signatures. Now it is just a matter of seconds and that too without the involvement of any external resources such as a printer or scanner.