What an electronic signature is
An electronic signature is any mark you make electronically to show you agree to a document — a typed name, a drawn signature, or an image of the one you sign on paper. What makes it count is not how it looks but the process around it: who was asked to sign, who opened the document, who signed and when.
SignPe handles both halves. You choose how your signature looks, and every signing is recorded with its date and time, then summarised in an audit trail PDF that travels with the signed document. Electronic signatures are recognised under the US ESIGN Act and UETA, the EU’s eIDAS regulation and India’s IT Act 2000; the legality guide covers the Indian position in detail.
Electronic vs digital signatures
People often use the terms interchangeably. A digital signature is a specific, certificate-based kind of electronic signature. For India, SignPe also offers Aadhaar eSign, which produces a PKI-signed PDF — see what is a digital signature for the difference.
Three ways to create your signature
When you add a signature on the web app, a modal opens with three tabs: Type, Draw and Upload. The mobile apps offer the same three choices. Pick whichever looks most like you, or create one of each.
| Method | How it works | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Enter your name and choose from six script fonts | A clean, consistent signature in seconds |
| Draw | Sign with a mouse, trackpad, finger or stylus in black, blue or red | A signature that looks hand-made |
| Upload | Add a JPG or PNG of your signature, up to 5 MB | Matching the signature you already use on paper |
On a phone or tablet, drawing feels close to pen on paper. The line responds to your speed — slower strokes come out thicker, stroke ends taper and a tap leaves a dot — and smoothing keeps it from looking jagged. A Clear button starts you again. More on that in signature pen brushes.
On mobile, Upload lets you take a photo with the camera or pick one from your gallery, so you can sign a sheet of paper and capture it on the spot. You can also switch on Add watermark (footer) to signature if you want a footer mark under it.
Initials and company stamps
Many agreements ask for more than a signature at the end. Lease agreements want initials on every page; purchase orders and invoices in many businesses carry the company stamp. SignPe treats both as first-class:
- Initials — up to two letters, created the same way as a signature, and placed with their own Initials field.
- Stamps — upload an image of your company stamp once and place it with a Stamp field wherever it is needed.
Each lives alongside your signatures in the same library, so a signer asked for a signature, initials on each page and a stamp on the last can finish all three without leaving the document.
A signature library you set up once
Everything you create is saved to My Signatures, with Add Signature, Add Initials and Upload Stamp to add more. There is no limit on how many you keep, which is handy if you sign differently for personal and business documents or sign on behalf of more than one company.
- Mark as Default — the one SignPe offers first, so most signings take a single tap.
- Delete — remove an old signature or a stamp you no longer use.
- Organised on mobile — the apps list them under All Signatures, All Initials and All Stamps.
- Synced everywhere — one account across web and mobile, so a signature drawn on your phone is there on your laptop.
See saved signatures for more on managing the library.
Placing your signature anywhere on the page
Signatures go into fields, and fields go exactly where you drop them. Drag a field onto the page, resize it to fit the line or box printed on the document, and — when other people are signing — assign it to the right signer so each person only sees their own.
A signature is rarely the only thing a document needs, so the same toolbar offers:
- Signature, Initials and Stamp
- Full Name, Email, Company and Designation
- Date, in DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, DD-MM-YYYY or “MMMM DD, YYYY”
- Text, in sizes 12–36 and fonts including Inter, Roboto, Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New
- Checkmark, and Shape — Circle, Square, Rounded, Star, Pentagon or Hexagon
Where a document has several signature or initials fields for the same person, Apply to all fields of the same type fills every one of them in a single step — no more initialling 14 pages one at a time. For free text and markup, see adding text and shapes.
Electronic signatures vs printing, signing and scanning
The paper route for a single contract is: download, print, sign, find a scanner (or a phone app), scan, rename the file, attach it, email it back — and hope the scan is legible. Multiply that by every signer and every page that needs initials.
| Print, sign, scan | SignPe electronic signature | |
|---|---|---|
| Equipment | Printer and scanner | Any browser, phone or tablet |
| Initials on every page | By hand, page by page | Apply to all fields of the same type |
| Legibility | Depends on the scan | Crisp on every page |
| Record of who signed and when | Email timestamps, if you keep them | Every action logged with date and time |
| Returning the document | Email attachment | Completed copy emailed to everyone automatically |
For a walkthrough of the paper-free route, read how to sign a PDF without printing.
Tips for a signature that works everywhere
- Upload on a plain background. A signature photographed on white paper in good light reproduces best. Our guide to making a transparent signature shows how to clean one up.
- Keep one default. Mark the signature you use most as default so you are not choosing every time.
- Use initials and stamps where the document expects them. A stamp field where a stamp is customary avoids the document coming back for correction.
- Size the field to the line. A signature squeezed into a tiny box is harder to read; drag the field’s corner to fit.
- Choose blue for originals if your organisation prefers it. Some teams use blue to tell signed originals from copies at a glance.
How to create and place your electronic signature
Open your document
Upload a PDF, Word document or image to SignPe, or open one you have been sent.
Add a Signature field
Drag a Signature field onto the page where you need to sign, and resize it to fit.
Create your signature
Choose Type, Draw or Upload. Type your name and pick a script font, draw it in black, blue or red, or upload a JPG or PNG up to 5 MB.
Save it to your library
Your signature is saved to My Signatures. Mark it as default to use it again with one tap.
Fill every matching field
Use Apply to all fields of the same type to sign or initial every matching field, then finish and submit the document.
