How to Put a Signature on a Rental Agreement Without a Printer
You can sign a rental agreement without a printer by drawing your signature on screen and placing it onto the PDF. With PDF Sign, you choose the lease, draw your signature with a mouse, trackpad or finger, enter the page number and position, and download a signed copy. If the lease needs your initials on several pages, repeat the process once per page. To add the date or your printed name, use Add Text to PDF.
Before you sign anything, check that your landlord or letting agent accepts a drawn electronic signature. Most do for everyday tenancy paperwork, but some ask you to use their own e-signing service instead. If they've sent you a signing link, use that.
Before you start
- Read the whole agreement, including rent, deposit, notice period and anything about repairs or pets. Signing on a screen is quick, which makes it easy to skip this step.
- Note every place that needs your input. Scroll through and write down the page numbers that need a full signature, initials, a date or your printed name.
- Work on a copy. Keep the original file the landlord sent you untouched, in case you need to start again.
- Check it isn't password-protected. PDF Sign can't open locked files. If it is, open it in your PDF reader with the password and save an unprotected copy.
Step 1: Sign the signature page
- Open PDF Sign and click Choose PDF. Pick your lease.
- Draw your signature in the box. Sign large and fill most of the box; a small scribble in a corner ends up tiny on the page. The ink is dark blue. Click Clear signature if you want another try.
- Under Position on PDF, enter the Page number of the signature page.
- Set X (distance from the left edge) and Y (distance from the top) to place it on the signature line.
- Set Width and Height. The defaults are 200 by 60. Keep roughly a four-to-one shape, such as 240 by 60, so the signature isn't squashed.
- Click Embed Signature, then Download Signed PDF. Open the file and check where it landed.
Finding the right X and Y
There's no page preview to drag the signature onto, so placement uses numbers, measured in PDF points. An A4 page is about 595 points wide and 842 tall; US Letter is 612 by 792. A signature line near the bottom of an A4 page sits at a Y value of roughly 700 to 780, and the middle of the page is around X 300.
If your first attempt is off, note how far and adjust X or Y. Then click Choose PDF, pick your original file again, and click Embed Signature. Your drawing stays in the box, so you don't need to redraw it. It usually takes one or two tries.
If the landlord's lease has a tenant line and a landlord line side by side, make sure you're placing yours on the tenant side.
Step 2: Initial the other pages
Many leases ask you to initial each page, or next to specific clauses, to show you've seen them. PDF Sign places one signature on one page per run, so for initials you repeat the process for each page:
- Click Clear signature and draw your initials in the box.
- Click Choose PDF and pick the signed file you just downloaded, so the earlier signature is kept.
- Enter the page number and the X and Y of the initials box. Initials are smaller, so try a width of around 100 and height of 40 to 50.
- Click Embed Signature and download.
- Repeat for the next page, always starting from the most recent download.
The initials box is usually in the same spot on every page, often a corner of the footer, so once you've found the right X and Y for one page you can reuse them for the rest. Each download adds -signed to the file name, so rename the final version to something clear before you send it.
Step 3: Add the date and your printed name
PDF Sign doesn't add text, so use Add Text to PDF for the date, your printed name, or anything else the form asks you to fill in, such as an ID number or a move-in date. Open the latest signed copy in that tool, place your text on the right page, and download the new copy.
Write the date in the format the lease uses. If it says DD/MM/YYYY, follow it; if the date is written out in words elsewhere, match that.
Step 4: Check the final file
Open the finished PDF and go through it page by page:
- every signature and initial is on the right line and not covering any text
- the date and your name are in the right boxes
- no page has been signed twice by accident
If the landlord also wants a copy of your ID, payslips or a reference letter in the same file, combine them with the signed lease using PDF Merge, with the lease first.
Step 5: Send it and keep a copy
Email the signed PDF to the landlord or agent, or upload it to their portal. Keep your own copy somewhere safe, and ask for a copy once the landlord has countersigned it. That fully signed version is the one to keep for the length of your tenancy.
Is a drawn signature legally valid?
A signature drawn and placed this way is generally treated as a simple electronic signature. Many countries' laws allow these for everyday agreements. In the US, for example, the federal ESIGN Act says a signature or contract may not be denied legal effect solely because it's in electronic form.
It isn't a certificate-based digital signature, which uses a cryptographic certificate to prove who signed and that the file wasn't changed afterwards. Rules differ by country and by type of agreement, and some landlords, agencies or courts may require a specific method. If you're unsure, ask the landlord or agent what they accept before you sign. For legal questions about the lease itself, speak to a local tenant advice service or a lawyer.
PDF Sign works in your browser using the pdf-lib library, so neither the lease nor your signature is uploaded to our server. That matters for a document that contains your address and often your ID details.
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