Guide · Updated · By Buğra Sözeri
How to Create an Electronic Signature
An electronic signature can be as simple as a drawn or typed name. The goal is a clean, reusable signature you can add to PDFs and other documents.
Step by step
- Choose a method. Draw it with a mouse, trackpad or finger, type your name in a script font, or scan a signature written on paper.
- Use a signature generator. Open eSignSimple's free signature generator, then draw or type your signature.
- Adjust the style. Try a few versions until it looks natural at the size it will appear on a document.
- Save it. Download the signature as an image so you can insert it into documents, or save it in the app you sign with.
- Apply it to a document. Add it to a PDF with Preview, Acrobat Reader or eSignSimple's Sign PDF tool.
Scanning a handwritten signature
Sign on plain white paper with a dark pen, photograph it in good light, and crop tightly. Many phone camera apps and scanner apps can clean up the background.
Preview on Mac can also capture a signature through your camera, and the Files app on iPhone lets you draw one directly.
Keep your signature image safe
A signature image can be copied, so avoid posting it publicly. For agreements with other people, an e-signature service that records who signed and when adds evidence beyond the image itself.
Drawn, typed or scanned: which should you choose?
Drawn signatures look the most personal but vary each time and look rough with a mouse. Typed signatures are consistent and legible, and in many situations just as valid. Scanned signatures look like the real thing but take more effort and create an image that others could copy. Our signature generator lets you try drawn and typed versions side by side, and you can then place the result on a PDF with the Sign PDF tool.
Where to use your new signature
On PDFs, follow the device guides for Mac or Windows. In Word, insert it as a picture as described in how to electronically sign a Word document. In emails, add it to your Gmail signature settings or follow how to add a signature in Outlook. For contracts with other people, the signature image is less important than the process; our explainer on digital vs. electronic signatures shows why.
What mistakes make a signature image look unprofessional?
A white box around the signature (use a transparent PNG), a tiny low-resolution image that turns blurry when enlarged, a signature so large it overlaps the printed name, and blue-pen scans with a grey paper background. Crop tightly, keep the file at least a few hundred pixels wide, and use dark ink. The same image can go into your email sign-off: see how to add a signature in Outlook and, for documents that arrive as attachments, how to sign a document in Gmail.
How do I make a typed signature look like a real one?
Choose a script font that is easy to read at small sizes. Ornate calligraphy fonts look striking at large sizes and turn into a smudge at the 10 to 14 point size of a signature line. Type your name the way you sign it: if your pen signature is your first initial and surname, use that in the typed version too, so it matches your other documents.
Then check it at real size. Place it on a sample PDF and view it at 100 percent zoom. If letters merge, try another font or slightly larger text. In a generator such as ours, you can type your name and switch between fonts until one looks right, then download it as an image. A typed signature carries the same legal weight in most places as a drawn one; what matters is that you used it intentionally.
Should you create one signature or several?
Most people need two: a full signature and a set of initials. Leases and longer contracts ask for initials on every page, and stretching your full signature into a tiny initials box looks odd. Create both in the same style so they clearly belong together.
Some people also keep a third, more formal version for documents such as company resolutions, and a simpler one for everyday forms. That is fine, but avoid having many versions in circulation: a consistent signature makes it easier for others to recognise yours and harder for anyone to argue it was not you. If you sign on behalf of a company, add your printed name and title next to the signature rather than changing the signature itself.
Where should you store your signature image?
A signature image is a key to your name. Store it somewhere private: a folder on your own computer or a private cloud folder, not your desktop on a shared PC and not a shared team drive. Do not send it to people as an image file "so they can add it"; if someone needs your signature, sign the document yourself.
For apps you sign with regularly, let the app keep its own saved signature (Preview, Acrobat Reader and iPhone Markup all do) instead of inserting an image file every time. When you leave a job or stop using a shared computer, delete saved signatures from the apps you used there. These small habits matter more than the look of the signature itself.
Creating a signature vs. signing a contract: the step people miss
Creating a signature gives you a picture. Signing is what you do with it, and for anything involving another party, the record around the signature matters more than the picture. If you sign a contract by pasting your signature image into a PDF and emailing it back, there is no record of when you signed, from where, or whether the document was changed afterwards.
When both sides sign through a signing link, the service records each signer's email, the time of each step, their IP address and device, and fixes the final file with a fingerprint. That is what makes the signature hold up if there is ever a question. Our electronic signature glossary entry explains the concept, and electronic signature vs. wet signature covers when ink is still required.
Our take
Stop worrying about whether your electronic signature looks exactly like your pen signature. The law in most places cares about intent to sign and the evidence around it, not calligraphy. A typed name in a clean script font is perfectly respectable. What matters more is where you use it: signing your own documents with an image is fine, but when you need someone else's signature, the image alone proves nothing. That is what signing links and audit trails are for.
Sources and further reading
Frequently asked questions
Is a typed signature valid?
In many jurisdictions, yes. Electronic signature laws such as the US ESIGN Act generally focus on intent to sign rather than how the signature looks.
What is the difference between an electronic and a digital signature?
A digital signature is a specific type of electronic signature that uses a certificate and cryptography. See our guide on digital vs. electronic signatures.
Is the signature generator free?
Yes, eSignSimple's signature generator is free to use.
What file format should my signature image be?
PNG with a transparent background is best, because it sits cleanly on top of the document's signature line without a white box around it.
Can I use the same electronic signature everywhere?
Yes, for your own documents. Reusing one consistent signature is normal. For documents you sign through a service, you usually draw or type it again in the signing page, which is part of the record.
Can someone forge my electronic signature?
Anyone can copy an image, which is why the image alone proves little. Signing services tie the signature to an email address, a time and a fixed document, which is much harder to fake convincingly.
What size should a signature image be?
Around 600 to 1,000 pixels wide is plenty. It stays sharp when shrunk onto a signature line and the file stays small enough to insert anywhere.
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