Tutorials · September 28, 2026 · 5 min read
How to sign a PDF on iPhone or iPad (no app needed)
Your iPhone can already sign a PDF. Here is the built-in way, the browser way, and which one to use when.
Someone emails you a PDF to sign, and you are nowhere near a computer. You do not need to install anything. An iPhone or iPad can sign it two ways, both free: Markup, which is built into iOS, and a signer that runs in Safari. They are good at different things, so here are both.
Method 1: Markup, built into iOS
First, get the PDF into the Files app. In Mail, tap the attachment, tap the Share button, and choose Save to Files. Safari's Share button has the same option.
Open the PDF in Files and tap the Markup button, a pen tip at the top of the screen. Tap the plus button, choose Add Signature, sign with your finger, and tap Done.
The signature lands in the middle of the page. Drag it onto the line and drag a corner to resize it. For the date or your printed name, the same plus button adds text. Tap Done when you are finished, and the changes are saved into the file, ready to attach to your reply.
iOS keeps the signature, so the next document is one tap instead of a scribble.
Where Markup gets fiddly
Markup draws on top of the page. It does not know where the signature line is, and on a phone-sized screen it is easy to land a little high or a little low. That is fine for one signature, and tedious for a contract that wants initials on every page, a date next to each signature, and a couple of boxes ticked.
Dates are typed text, so you choose the size and line them up by eye every time. And the signature stays saved on the device, which is convenient on your own phone and less so on a shared family iPad. The browser signer remembers yours too, so on a shared iPad use a private tab, or delete it from the Saved tab when you are done.
Method 2: sign it in Safari
Open esign.website in Safari. There is nothing to install and no account to create.
Tap Choose a document and pick the PDF from Files. The document opens in the browser; it is not uploaded anywhere.
The signature panel appears below the document. Draw your signature with your finger, or type your name and pick a script font, then tap Use this signature. It appears on the page: drag it onto the line and drag its corner to resize it.
The toolbar above the page adds what contracts usually ask for next: the date, in the format you choose, plus text, initials and checkboxes. Each page keeps its own fields, so a ten-page agreement does not mean ten rounds of pinching and zooming.
Tap Download PDF and choose Standard PDF. Safari saves the signed copy to the Downloads folder in Files, and from there it attaches to an email like any other file. The free copy carries a watermark; Clean PDF gives a clean copy for $1, and five are $3.
Which one should you use?
For a one-page form you sign once, such as a permission slip, a delivery note or a gym waiver, use Markup. It is already on your phone and it costs nothing.
Use the browser when the document has several places to sign or date, when the dates need to be consistent, or when the copy is going to a client or an employer and should look finished rather than scribbled on. It also works the same on any phone, so the Android user you forward the document to can follow the same steps.
Signing on iPad, with or without Apple Pencil
Everything above works the same on an iPad, and the larger screen makes placement much easier. Apple Pencil makes drawn signatures noticeably better in both Markup and the browser, where the Pencil simply works as a precise finger.
Before you hit send
Open the signed file one more time. Check that the signature is on the right page, the date is right, and nothing covers printed text. It takes ten seconds, and it is much less awkward than a counterparty writing back to say the signature landed on the wrong page.
Scanned documents deserve a second look. A page that was scanned sideways is often stored that way with an instruction to turn it upright, and some apps place a signature where the unturned page would be, so it appears in the wrong spot or sideways. If a scan is involved, look before you send.