Handwritten signatures

Five answers about handwritten signatures: making one, scanning it, placing it and whether it counts.

A handwritten signature on a PDF

Put a real handwritten mark on a PDF page without printing it first.

Drop your signature into a DOCX exactly where the signature line already is.

From paper to a clean transparent image: light, contrast and what to crop away.

Slant, size, loops and pressure — the four things that make two signatures look different.

What a drawn signature is worth on an electronic document, and what usually matters more.

A finger on a touchscreen writes a rougher line than a pen on paper, and that changes how you should sign.