How to Sign a PDF on Your Mac Using Preview

Signing a document used to mean printing it out, signing it with a pen, and then scanning it back in. On a Mac, you can skip all of that. The Preview app — which comes installed on every Mac — has a built-in signature tool that lets you sign PDFs in seconds.

You can create a signature in three different ways. You can draw it on your trackpad using your finger, you can hold a signed piece of paper up to your Mac's camera and Preview will capture it, or you can type your name and choose a handwriting-style font. Once you create a signature, Preview saves it so you can use it again on future documents without re-drawing it.

After you place your signature on the PDF, you can drag it to the correct spot on the form, resize it, and then save the file. The signed PDF can then be emailed, uploaded, or printed — whatever you need.

This approach is accepted for most everyday documents like rental forms, permission slips, medical forms, and business agreements. For legally binding contracts that require a certified e-signature (such as real estate closing documents), you may need a dedicated e-signature service like DocuSign. But for the vast majority of everyday paperwork, Preview's signature tool works perfectly.

The whole process takes about two minutes once your signature is saved, and the original document quality is preserved.