Sign the document you were sent, on the document you were sent

Fill the fields before you sign

If the document has form fields, complete them first. Filling typed text into real fields keeps it crisp and selectable, which matters to whoever processes the document afterwards.

If it has no fields and you need to add text — a date, a printed name — add it as text rather than drawing it. It stays legible at any zoom.

Place the signature where it belongs

A signature can be drawn, typed, or placed from an image. What matters is that it lands on the right page in the right box, at a size that looks like a signature rather than a banner.

Check the page after placing it. A signature that overlaps the printed line above it reads as sloppy on the other end.

Decide whether to flatten

Flattening merges the signature and any filled text into the page so they cannot be moved or edited by the next person to open the file. For anything being returned to a counterparty, that is usually what you want.

Keep an unflattened copy for yourself if you might need to correct a field later.

Getting a signature that does not look pasted on

If you are placing an image of a real signature, capture it once and capture it well: dark ink on white paper, photographed square-on in even light, then cropped tight to the strokes.

The two things that make a placed signature look wrong are a visible rectangle of off-white background around it, and a size that ignores the line it sits on. Remove the background, and scale it to about the height of the printed text nearby.

Drawn signatures work better with a finger or stylus on a touchscreen than with a mouse. A typed signature in a script font is fine where the document just needs a name, and obviously not a hand-signed mark.

Before you send it back

Check every page, not just the one you signed. Documents often need initials on each page, a date beside the signature, and a countersignature block left blank for the other party.

Send back the whole document rather than the signed page alone, unless you were asked for the page. A single page arrives without the terms it belongs to, and usually comes straight back to you.

A note on what this is and isn't

Placing a signature image on a page is not the same as a cryptographic digital signature, which binds an identity to the document and detects later changes. For most everyday agreements a placed signature is what is being asked for; when a counterparty specifically requires a digital certificate, they will say so.