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Sign PDF documents

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  1. Acrobat User Guide
  2. Introduction to Acrobat
    1. Access Acrobat from desktop, mobile, web
    2. What's new in Acrobat
    3. Keyboard shortcuts
    4. System Requirements
  3. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
    2. Opening and viewing PDFs
      1. Opening PDFs
      2. Navigating PDF pages
      3. Viewing PDF preferences
      4. Adjusting PDF views
      5. Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs
      6. Display PDF in browser
    3. Working with online storage accounts
      1. Access files from Box
      2. Access files from Dropbox
      3. Access files from OneDrive
      4. Access files from SharePoint
      5. Access files from Google Drive
    4. Acrobat and macOS
    5. Acrobat notifications
    6. Grids, guides, and measurements in PDFs
    7. Asian, Cyrillic, and right-to-left text in PDFs
  4. Creating PDFs
    1. Overview of PDF creation
    2. Create PDFs with Acrobat
    3. Create PDFs with PDFMaker
    4. Using the Adobe PDF printer
    5. Converting web pages to PDF
    6. Creating PDFs with Acrobat Distiller
    7. Adobe PDF conversion settings
    8. PDF fonts
  5. Editing PDFs
    1. Edit text in PDFs
    2. Edit images or objects in a PDF
    3. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    4. Edit scanned PDFs
    5. Enhance document photos captured using a mobile camera
    6. Optimizing PDFs
    7. PDF properties and metadata
    8. Links and attachments in PDFs
    9. PDF layers
    10. Page thumbnails and bookmarks in PDFs
    11. Action Wizard (Acrobat Pro)
    12. PDFs converted to web pages
    13. Setting up PDFs for a presentation
    14. PDF articles
    15. Geospatial PDFs
    16. Applying actions and scripts to PDFs
    17. Change the default font for adding text
    18. Delete pages from a PDF
  6. Scan and OCR
    1. Scan documents to PDF
    2. Enhance document photos
    3. Troubleshoot scanner issues when scanning using Acrobat
  7. Forms
    1. PDF forms basics
    2. Create a form from scratch in Acrobat
    3. Create and distribute PDF forms
    4. Fill in PDF forms
    5. PDF form field properties
    6. Fill and sign PDF forms
    7. Setting action buttons in PDF forms
    8. Publishing interactive PDF web forms
    9. PDF form field basics
    10. PDF barcode form fields
    11. Collect and manage PDF form data
    12. About forms tracker
    13. PDF forms help
    14. Send PDF forms to recipients using email or an internal server
  8. Combining files
    1. Combine or merge files into single PDF
    2. Rotate, move, delete, and renumber PDF pages
    3. Add headers, footers, and Bates numbering to PDFs
    4. Crop PDF pages
    5. Add watermarks to PDFs
    6. Add backgrounds to PDFs
    7. Working with component files in a PDF Portfolio
    8. Publish and share PDF Portfolios
    9. Overview of PDF Portfolios
    10. Create and customize PDF Portfolios
  9. Sharing, reviews, and commenting
    1. Share and track PDFs online
    2. Mark up text with edits
    3. Preparing for a PDF review
    4. Starting a PDF review
    5. Hosting shared reviews on SharePoint or Office 365 sites
    6. Participating in a PDF review
    7. Add comments to PDFs
    8. Adding a stamp to a PDF
    9. Approval workflows
    10. Managing comments | view, reply, print
    11. Importing and exporting comments
    12. Tracking and managing PDF reviews
  10. Saving and exporting PDFs
    1. Saving PDFs
    2. Convert PDF to Word
    3. Convert PDF to JPG
    4. Convert or export PDFs to other file formats
    5. File format options for PDF export
    6. Reusing PDF content
  11. Security
    1. Enhanced security setting for PDFs
    2. Securing PDFs with passwords
    3. Manage Digital IDs
    4. Securing PDFs with certificates
    5. Opening secured PDFs
    6. Removing sensitive content from PDFs
    7. Setting up security policies for PDFs
    8. Choosing a security method for PDFs
    9. Security warnings when a PDF opens
    10. Securing PDFs with Adobe Experience Manager
    11. Protected View feature for PDFs
    12. Overview of security in Acrobat and PDFs
    13. JavaScripts in PDFs as a security risk
    14. Attachments as security risks
    15. Allow or block links in PDFs
  12. Electronic signatures
    1. Sign PDF documents
    2. Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere
    3. Send documents for e-signatures
    4. About certificate signatures
    5. Certificate-based signatures
    6. Validating digital signatures
    7. Adobe Approved Trust List
    8. Manage trusted identities
  13. Printing
    1. Basic PDF printing tasks
    2. Print Booklets and PDF Portfolios
    3. Advanced PDF print settings
    4. Print to PDF
    5. Printing color PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    6. Printing PDFs in custom sizes
  14. Accessibility, tags, and reflow
    1. Create and verify PDF accessibility
    2. Accessibility features in PDFs
    3. Reading Order tool for PDFs
    4. Reading PDFs with reflow and accessibility features
    5. Edit document structure with the Content and Tags panels
    6. Creating accessible PDFs
  15. Searching and indexing
    1. Creating PDF indexes
    2. Searching PDFs
  16. Multimedia and 3D models
    1. Add audio, video, and interactive objects to PDFs
    2. Adding 3D models to PDFs (Acrobat Pro)
    3. Displaying 3D models in PDFs
    4. Interacting with 3D models
    5. Measuring 3D objects in PDFs
    6. Setting 3D views in PDFs
    7. Enable 3D content in PDF
    8. Adding multimedia to PDFs
    9. Commenting on 3D designs in PDFs
    10. Playing video, audio, and multimedia formats in PDFs
    11. Add comments to videos
  17. Print production tools (Acrobat Pro)
    1. Print production tools overview
    2. Printer marks and hairlines
    3. Previewing output
    4. Transparency flattening
    5. Color conversion and ink management
    6. Trapping color
  18. Preflight (Acrobat Pro)
    1. PDF/X-, PDF/A-, and PDF/E-compliant files
    2. Preflight profiles
    3. Advanced preflight inspections
    4. Preflight reports
    5. Viewing preflight results, objects, and resources
    6. Output intents in PDFs
    7. Correcting problem areas with the Preflight tool
    8. Automating document analysis with droplets or preflight actions
    9. Analyzing documents with the Preflight tool
    10. Additional checks in the Preflight tool
    11. Preflight libraries
    12. Preflight variables
  19. Color management
    1. Keeping colors consistent
    2. Color settings
    3. Color-managing documents
    4. Working with color profiles
    5. Understanding color management

You can sign a document to attest to its contents or approve the document. This document explains how to sign a document or agreement using Acrobat or Reader desktop application.

Sign a PDF

To sign a PDF document or form, you can type, draw, or insert an image of your handwritten signature. You can also add text, such as your name, company, title, or the date. When you save the document, the signature and text become part of the PDF.

Note:

You can also capture a picture of your signature on mobile using Adobe Acrobat Reader mobile app and save it in Adobe Document Cloud so that it's synced and available for use across your desktop and other mobile devices. For more information, see Capture your signature on mobile and use it everywhere.

  1. Open the PDF document or form that you want to sign.

  2. Click the Sign icon  in the toolbar. Alternatively, you can choose Tools > Fill & Sign or choose Fill & Sign from the right pane.

    Global sign tool

  3.  The Fill & Sign tool is displayed. Click Fill and Sign.

    Fill & Sign home

  4. The form fields are detected automatically. Hover the mouse over a field to display a blue box. Click anywhere in the blue box, the cursor will be placed at the right position automatically. Type your text to fill the field. 

    Hover the mouse over a field to display the detected form field
    Hover the mouse to display the detected text field

    You can choose your desired color to fill the PDF form. Click the color button in the Fill & Sign menu and choose your desired color.

    Choose color to fill the form

    By default, the signature color is black. To retain the default color of the signature, make sure the Retain Original Color For Signature option is unchecked.

    Note:

    For more information on filling your form, see Fill out your PDF form.

  5. Click the Sign icon in the toolbar, and then choose whether you want to add your signature or just initials.

    Add signature or initials

    If you have already added signatures or initials, they are displayed as options to choose from.

  6. If you've already added your signature or initials, just select it from the Sign options, and then click at the place in the PDF where you want to add your signature. Skip to the next step.

    If you are signing for the first time, you see the Signature or Initials panel. Below is an example of the Signature panel.

    Type, draw, or import a signature image
    You can choose to type, draw, or import a signature image. Added signatures and initials are saved for future use.

    • Type: Type your name in the field. You can choose from a small selection of signature styles; click Change Style to view a different style.
    • Draw: Draw your signature in the field.
    • Image: Browse and select an image of your signature.
    • Save Signature: When this check box is selected, and you're signed in to Acrobat Reader or Acrobat, the added signature is saved securely in Adobe Document Cloud for reuse.

    Click Apply, and then click at the place in the PDF where you want to place the signature or initial.

  7. To move the placed signature or initial, click the field to highlight it and then use the arrow keys. To resize or delete the field, use the options in field toolbar.

Note:

If you want to use an image as your signature:

  • Sign your name in black ink on a clean, blank sheet of white paper. Sign in the middle of the paper so you don't photograph or scan the edges.
  • Photograph or scan your signature. If you are taking a picture of your signature, make sure that the page is lit and that no shadows fall across the signature.
  • Transfer the photo or scan to your computer. Acrobat/Reader accepts JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, TIF, and BMP files. You do not need to crop the image. Acrobat/Reader imports just the signature if the photo or scan is fairly clean.

Sign an agreement

If someone has used Adobe Acrobat Sign to send you an agreement for signing, you receive an email notification with a link to sign the agreement. Also, if you use Acrobat DC or Acrobat Reader DC desktop application, you see a notification that an agreement has been shared with you for signing.

Do one of the following to sign an agreement sent to you using Acrobat Sign: 

  1. In Acrobat DC or Acrobat Reader DC, click Home. In the Sign section, click All Agreements. All the agreements shared or received for signature are displayed.

  2. Double-click the agreement with the Waiting For You status, or select the agreement, and click Sign in the right-pane. The agreement opens.

  3. Click in the fields and enter any requested information.

  4. Click the signature field. If you are signing for the first time, you see the Signature or Initials panel. 

    • Type: Type your name in the field. You can choose from a small selection of signature styles; click Change Style to view a different style.
    • Draw: Draw your signature in the field.
    • Image: Browse and select an image of your signature.
    • Mobile: Select this option to create your signature on a mobile device. Enter your mobile number and click Send. A link is sent to your mobile. Clicking the link opens the web browser on your mobile device where you can draw or select an image of your signature.
    • Save: When this check box is selected, and you're signed in to Acrobat Reader or Acrobat, the added signature is saved securely in Adobe Document Cloud for reuse.

    Click Apply to place the signature or initial.

  5. Click Click To Sign.

  1. Click the link of the agreement received in your email for signing. The agreement opens in web browser.

    Link of the agreement received in email

  2. Click in the fields and enter any requested information.

  3. Click the signature field. If you are signing for the first time, you see the Signature or Initials panel.

    Type, draw, or import a signature image
    You can choose to type, draw, or import a signature image. Added signatures and initials are saved for future use.

    • Type: Type your name in the field. You can choose from a small selection of signature styles; click Change Style to view a different style.
    • Draw: Draw your signature in the field.
    • Image: Browse and select an image of your signature.
    • Mobile: Select this option to create your signature on a mobile device. Enter your mobile number and click Send. A link is sent to your mobile. Clicking the link opens the web browser on your mobile device where you can draw or select an image of your signature.
    • Save: When this check box is selected, and you're signed in to Acrobat Reader or Acrobat, the added signature is saved securely in Adobe Document Cloud for reuse.

    Click Apply to place the signature or initial.

  4. Click  Click  To Sign.

Send your signed PDFs

After you have signed the form, you can share it with others. To share the form, follow the steps mentioned in the article Send your form.

Get PDFs signed by others using Adobe Acrobat Sign

For more information, see Send PDF documents for signature.

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