Yes — and in most situations, signing a PDF digitally is faster, cleaner, and legally equivalent to printing and signing by hand. The print-sign-scan workflow still exists out of habit more than necessity. Electronic signatures on PDFs are legally valid in most countries and for most document types, and there are several ways to do it depending on what you have available.
Are Electronic Signatures Legally Valid?
In the United States, the ESIGN Act (2000) gives electronic signatures the same legal standing as handwritten ones for most contracts and documents. The EU's eIDAS regulation covers electronic signatures across member states. Similar laws exist in the UK, Australia, Canada, and most other jurisdictions. For everyday business documents — service agreements, freelance contracts, NDAs, offer letters, vendor agreements — an electronic signature on a PDF is fully enforceable.
A small set of document types are explicitly excluded from electronic signature laws in some jurisdictions: wills, adoption papers, certain real estate transactions, and some court filings. For those, check the specific requirements. For everything else, electronic signatures work.
Types of Electronic Signatures
Not all electronic signatures are the same. A typed name, a drawn signature, an image of a handwritten signature, and a cryptographic digital signature are all "electronic signatures," but they offer different levels of verifiability.
A typed name or drawn signature is a simple electronic signature — the most common type for everyday business use. It's easy to create and works for most contracts. A cryptographic digital signature is backed by a certificate from a trusted authority and creates a verifiable link between the signature and the signer's identity — harder to repudiate and required in some regulated contexts. For most people in most situations, a simple electronic signature is sufficient.
How to Sign a PDF Electronically
The most straightforward method is a browser-based Sign PDF tool. WukongPDF's signing tool works directly in your browser: open the PDF, click on the signature field or anywhere on the page, and choose how you want to sign — type your name in a signature style font, draw your signature with a mouse or trackpad, or upload an image of your handwritten signature. Place it, adjust the size, and download the signed PDF.
On Mac, Apple Preview handles basic PDF signing without any additional tools. Open the PDF in Preview, click the markup toolbar, select the signature icon, and you can create a signature by drawing it on the trackpad, signing on a piece of paper and holding it up to the camera, or using an iPhone or iPad if it's nearby. Saved signatures can be reused across documents.
On iPhone and Android, the same browser-based tools work through the mobile browser. iOS users can also use Markup directly from Files or Mail to sign PDFs without opening a separate app.
When to Use a Dedicated E-Signature Platform
For high-volume contract workflows or documents where you need a full audit trail — timestamp, IP address, identity verification — a dedicated e-signature platform like DocuSign, HelloSign, or Adobe Sign adds those features. These create a signed document package with a certificate of completion that records who signed, when, and from where.
For most individual and small business use, that level of documentation isn't necessary. A signature placed via a browser tool on a PDF, saved and returned by email, is sufficient evidence of agreement for ordinary business contracts. The audit trail is the email exchange itself — timestamps, email addresses, and the signed file constitute a reasonable record.
Getting Someone Else to Sign Without Printing
If you need another party's signature, the simplest approach is to send them the PDF and ask them to sign electronically using any tool they prefer and return it. Most people are comfortable with this now. If they're less tech-savvy, pointing them to a specific tool with simple instructions removes the friction: "Open this PDF at [link], click Sign, draw or type your name, and download the signed version."
For documents that need multiple signatures in a specific order — countersigned agreements, approval chains — a dedicated e-signature platform automates the routing. For a simple two-party contract, email works fine: one party signs and sends, the other countersigns and returns the fully executed copy to both.