Every field type, at a glance
When you prepare a document in SignPe, the field panel holds everything a form is likely to ask for. Drag a field onto the page, drop it where it belongs, and resize it to fit.
| Field | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Signature | The signer’s full signature — typed, drawn or uploaded |
| Initials | Up to two letters, for page-by-page acknowledgement |
| Stamp | An uploaded image of a company stamp or seal |
| Full Name | The signer’s name, printed beside or under their signature |
| The signer’s email address, where a form asks for contact details | |
| Company | The organisation the signer is signing for |
| Designation | The signer’s job title or role, such as Director or Partner |
| Date | A date, in the format your document uses |
| Text | Free text — an address, a reference number, a note or an answer |
| Checkmark | A tick for yes/no questions, option boxes and confirmations |
| Shape | A circle, square, rounded box, star, pentagon or hexagon |
Signatures, initials and stamps come from the signer’s own library, so anyone who has saved their signatures can fill those fields in a tap.
Dates in the format your document uses
A date written the wrong way round is more than a cosmetic problem: 04/05 means April to one reader and May to another. SignPe lets you pick the format for each date field, so the signed document matches the conventions of the country or contract it belongs to.
| Format | Example | Commonly used in |
|---|---|---|
| DD/MM/YYYY | 15/03/2026 | India, the UK and much of Europe |
| MM/DD/YYYY | 03/15/2026 | The United States |
| YYYY-MM-DD | 2026-03-15 | International and technical documents |
| DD-MM-YYYY | 15-03-2026 | Forms that use a dash separator |
| MMMM DD, YYYY | March 15, 2026 | Formal letters and agreements |
Tip: match the rest of the document
If the contract already writes dates as “March 15, 2026” in its body, use the same format for the signature date. A document that reads consistently is easier to rely on later.
Text that looks like it belongs
Text fields are for anything that does not have a dedicated field: a property address, a policy number, an account reference, a handwritten-style answer to a question on a form. You choose how the text looks so it sits naturally alongside the printed words around it.
- Five fonts: Inter, Roboto, Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New. Use Times New Roman on a traditional contract, Arial or Inter on a modern form, and Courier New where a document mimics typewritten entries.
- Sizes from 12 to 36. Small sizes fit the narrow lines on a printed form; larger sizes suit headings, labels or notes you want to stand out.
- Resizable boxes. Stretch a text field to cover the whole blank line on the page, so the entry starts and ends where the form expects it to.
Name, email, company and designation have fields of their own, which keeps each piece of information labelled and in its proper place rather than buried in a generic text box.
Checkmarks and shapes for forms
Plenty of paperwork is a form first and an agreement second: insurance proposals, medical consent forms, onboarding checklists, KYC declarations. They are full of boxes to tick and options to pick.
- Checkmark fields go on top of the printed boxes — “I agree”, “Yes / No”, “Married / Single”, or a list of services being authorised.
- Shapes mark things on the page. Circle an option on a printed menu, draw a square around a figure that needs attention, or use a star to flag a clause.
- Six shapes are available: Circle, Square, Rounded, Star, Pentagon and Hexagon. Resize each one to fit what it is marking.
This is what turns a scanned paper form into something you can complete properly online. Combine it with importing a photo or scan and a form you were handed on paper can be filled, signed and returned without a printer.
Assign every field to the right signer
On a document with several people, each field belongs to one of them. When you place a field, you assign it to a signer — and only that signer can fill it in. The landlord’s signature box is the landlord’s; the tenant’s date field is the tenant’s.
- No boxes filled by the wrong person. A signer can only complete the fields assigned to them.
- Nothing left to guesswork. Every box has a named owner, so it is clear who still needs to fill in what.
- Works with signing order. Combine field assignment with “Set signer order” and each person completes their part in turn. See multiple signers.
Observers — people copied on a document so they can follow its progress — do not sign, so you do not assign fields to them.
Tip: give every signer a date and a name
Place a Full Name and a Date field beside each signature box. The signed PDF then shows who signed and when on the page itself, not only in the audit trail — which is what most readers of a contract look for first.
Compared with printing and filling by hand
The paper version of this is familiar: print the form, fill it in with a pen, sign, scan, and email a slightly crooked PDF back. If someone else needs to sign, they repeat the whole loop — and if a box is missed, so does everyone.
- Legible entries. Typed text in a proper font instead of handwriting someone has to decipher.
- Consistent dates. One format throughout, chosen by you rather than by each signer’s habit.
- One clean signed PDF. The finished document is a single file, not a scan of a scan.
- A record of who did what. Every signature is logged with its date and time in the audit trail.
For a full walk-through of filling and signing without paper, read how to sign a PDF without printing.
How to add text and shapes to a document in SignPe
Upload your document
Start a new document and upload a PDF, a Word file or images. Choose whether you are the only signer or requesting signatures from others.
Add your signers
Enter each signer’s name and email, and set the order they should sign in if it matters.
Drag fields onto the page
Pick a field — Signature, Date, Text, Checkmark, Shape and the rest — and drop it where it belongs. Resize it to fit the space on the form.
Set the details
Choose the date format, the text font and size, or the shape you want, and assign each field to the signer who should fill it.
Send or sign
Send the document for signature, or fill and sign it yourself if you are the only signer. Each person completes only the fields assigned to them.
