How to Digitally Sign Documents & Forms

If you want an easier way to sign documents and forms that you receive digitally, here’s how to digitally sign documents the easy way.

In the digital age, you probably get emailed various documents and forms that you have to sign. Let me take a guess and say that you probably print them out, sign them with a pen, scan them to your computer, and then email them back to the sender?

I used to do that too until I started using electronic signatures. While you may not think that electronic signatures are actually legit, they are completely legally-binding and legit, even if you don’t physically sign the document or form with your own hands.

Plus, using electronic signatures is a lot quicker and easier than converting a digital document into a physical copy and then signing it just to convert it back into a digital copy. Luckily, there are a handful of different services and methods available that make signing digital documents a breeze.

Here’s how to digitally sign documents and forms without going crazy.

DocuSign

Perhaps one of the most popular services dedicated to electronic signatures is DocuSign. It provides tools for both parties: those that need signatures for forms and those that need to sign digital documents.

In fact, DocuSign is its own ecosystem of sorts when it comes to this. Users can create forms within the service and then send them out for recipients to sign. However, if you’re just wanting a service that can provide you with an easy way to sign documents digitally, DocuSign can easily do that.

The only downside to DocuSign is that it’s a paid service, which costs $10 per month for individuals, although you can take advantage of a free trial to give the service a try.

HelloSign

If you’re an adamant Gmail user, perhaps the best electronic signature service you could use is HelloSign, which specifically works with Gmail so that you never even have to leave the email you’re in to digitally sign a document or form.

This is perhaps the best solution if you’re a Gmail user, and the service is completely free to use as long as you don’t go over three signatures per month, which you’ll have to starting paying for the service if you need more than that.

CudaSign

If you’re looking for a service sort of like DocuSign but dedicated to the mobile platform, then CudaSign is a service to try out.

It has apps available for both iOS and Android and it lets you create documents from within the app, as well as sign documents received from someone else by uploading the document into the app from your email or other source.

You can try CudaSign for free, and plans start at $1 per month and goes up to $9 per month for a Premium subscription to the service.

Adobe Reader

Perhaps the best option if you don’t want to have to pay a single penny in order to electronically sign documents is by using Adobe Reader or Acrobat, which has a feature that lets you insert your signature into documents and forms.

When you open up a document in Adobe Reader, you can click Fill & Sign in the top-right corner to insert a signature. You can either type your signature, draw your signature, or use a photo of your signature.

Personally, I prefer to attach my real signature to forms, so I’ll write my signature on a piece of paper and take a picture of it using Scanner Pro, which is an iPhone app that can scan documents. A regular picture would work, but Scanner Pro has the technology to make it look like an actual scan instead of just a photo.

From there, you transfer the photo to your computer and open it up in Adobe Reader to insert it into the document. However, you can simply “type” your signature and use a signature-looking font. While may not seem legit, it’s actually entirely legally binding.