Fill & sign a PDF
in your browser.

Filling out a PDF that wasn't designed to be filled out

The reasons to fill and sign a PDF are usually about a document that came as a flat layout — a printed-and-scanned form, a contract exported from Word, an application sent as a non-interactive PDF — that you're expected to return completed. There are no clickable fields. The form just has lines and checkboxes drawn as part of the page. The job here is small and predictable: type your answers on top of the lines, draw or type your signature where required, and download the result.

What you get back is a PDF that visually looks like the original was filled out by hand or with a typewriter. The text you typed sits on top of the page wherever you placed it. The signature, if you drew or typed one, sits as an image on top of the page where you dropped it. The original document content underneath stays exactly as it was — your additions are a separate layer drawn on top.

How filling actually works here

Behind the scenes, this isn't a smart form-detection tool. There's no logic that looks at your PDF and identifies "name field" or "address field" — the document is just a static page to us. What you do is click anywhere on the page and start typing; the typed text appears at the click position with a default font and size you can adjust, and you reposition or resize it like a sticker.

That makes the workflow:

• Open the PDF. The first page renders in the editor as it would in any viewer. Page navigation, zoom, and pan work as expected.
• Click on a blank line where you want to write. A text input appears at that point. Type your value.
• Adjust if needed. Drag to reposition. Resize for fit. Change the font size if the line is taller or shorter than the default.
• Repeat for every field. One click per field, one piece of typed text per click. Move on through the document.
• For checkboxes, type an "X" or "✓" and place it inside the box. (No checkbox detection — it's just a small piece of text.)
• For the signature, open the signature dialog, draw with your mouse or trackpad, or type your name and pick a script-style font. Drop the resulting image where required.
• Download. The file you get has all your additions baked into the page content.

What this is good for, and what it isn't

This is good for short documents — single-page forms, two-page contracts, a few signature spots scattered through a longer doc. The clicking and typing is fast for a handful of fields and pleasant once you find a rhythm.

This is not the right tool for filling out a 40-page tax form with fifty fields. For long, repetitive form-filling, the right approach is finding a properly fillable version of the form (most government forms have one if you look on the agency's site) or running a dedicated form-recognition tool. Manual click-type-position over fifty fields is a lot of clicks.

This is also not for forms where the field names need to be machine-readable — e-government submissions that want a structured response, or HR portals that parse your filled PDF for data. Your typed text is just a visual layer; nothing about it identifies "this is the date of birth field". A properly fillable PDF with AcroForm fields gives you that structure.

About the signature

Three ways to make a signature here:

• Draw it. With a mouse this looks shaky; with a trackpad it's better; with a stylus on a touch device it's quite good. Choose the line thickness and colour.
• Type it. Pick a script-style font, type your name, and the result is rendered as an image. Looks neat and consistent but doesn't have the variation a real signature does.
• Upload an image. If you've previously scanned a wet signature on plain paper, upload the cropped image. Best results: black ink on white, scanned at 300+ DPI, cropped tight, transparent or removed background.

What the resulting "signature" actually means legally varies by jurisdiction and document type. In many places, a typed-or-drawn signature on a PDF is binding for routine commercial agreements but isn't sufficient for documents requiring a notary, a digital certificate, or a qualified electronic signature. Check what the receiving party needs before assuming the level of formality. For QES-grade signatures (legally equivalent to handwritten in the EU), use sign-pdf with a dedicated provider.

What survives and what doesn't

• The original page content stays as it was. Your typed text and signature are drawn on top; nothing underneath is rebuilt or replaced.
• Bookmarks, annotations, and existing form fields all survive. If the PDF happened to have a few real form fields and you typed extra text on top of static lines, both layers coexist.
• The typed text becomes part of the page after download. It's no longer editable as "fields" — it's drawn page content. To change a value later, the right path is to edit the source if you have it, or run the file back through this tool and overlay corrections.
• Existing digital signatures on the PDF are invalidated. Adding text to a signed document breaks the signature. If you need to keep the signed version intact, fill out a copy.

If something looks off

• Text doesn't fit on the line. Reduce the font size, or shorten the value. This is a flat layer; there's no auto-fit.
• Typed text overlaps with the printed form. Drag it. The form lines are part of the page, so your text needs to be positioned to clear them.
• Signature looks wrong size. Resize it before placing, or after placing — the signature behaves like an image element you can drag and scale.
• "Encrypted PDF can't be modified" message. Run through unlock-pdf first; encrypted PDFs aren't accepted for editing.

Practical notes

1. Look for a fillable version first. Government and corporate forms increasingly publish properly fillable PDFs. Check the agency's website before manually clicking-and-typing fifty fields.
2. For multi-step workflows, fill the document once, then if you need someone else's signature on it, send the filled-but-unsigned PDF. They can run it through sign-pdf to add their signature without re-filling.
3. For repeated fields, there's no auto-copy across pages — type each occurrence. If your name appears on every page, that's twenty clicks for a twenty-page document.
4. The original file stays untouched. What you download is a new PDF with your additions baked in; the source on your disk is unchanged.

What happens to your file

Filling and signing run in your browser. The text you type, the signature you draw, the file content — none of it leaves this tab. Open DevTools and watch the Network tab during the operation — there are no outbound requests carrying the file content. The PDF stays on your disk; the filled version is a new download alongside it.