To sign a PDF without printing it, open Kopitiam's Edit PDF tool, drop in the document, press Sign, then draw or type your signature and press Add. Drag it onto the signature line with the Select tool, add the date with the Text tool, and press Download. No printer, no scanner, and no account.

The signing happens in your browser, so the document and your signature aren't uploaded to a server. That matters, because the forms people sign, like tenancy agreements, offer letters and consent forms, tend to carry addresses, IC numbers and bank details.

Sign a PDF step by step

  1. Open Edit PDF and drop your PDF onto the page, or click to choose a file.
  2. Scroll to the page that needs your signature. Kopitiam places it on the page you're looking at, so do this first.
  3. Press Sign in the toolbar. The Add signature window opens.
  4. Choose Draw and sign in the box with your mouse, trackpad or finger, or choose Type and enter your name.
  5. Press Add. Your signature appears near the top of the visible part of the page.
  6. Choose Select, then drag the signature onto the line.
  7. Choose Text, click beside the signature, and type the date or your printed name.
  8. Press Download. The signed copy saves to your device with -edited added to the file name.

If the form has a field labelled Signature and you haven't signed it yet, Kopitiam does the lining up for you. When you open the file it looks for form fields, and if it found an empty Signature field on the page you're viewing, the signature lands with its bottom edge sitting on that line.

Draw or type: which to choose

Draw gives you a signature that looks like yours. A trackpad or a stylus on a tablet gives the smoothest line. With a mouse it's harder, so take a couple of tries: press Cancel and open Sign again to start over.

Type turns your name into a handwriting-style font. It's quick and tidy, and fine for most everyday forms. Very long names can run off the right edge of the signature, so if yours gets cut off, use your initials and surname, or draw it instead.

Kopitiam doesn't save your signature between visits. That's deliberate: nothing about it is stored on our side. The trade-off is that you draw or type it again each time you need it.

Getting the size and position right

A new signature is placed at a fixed width, roughly the length of a typical signature line. There's no resize handle yet, so if you want a smaller mark, draw it smaller inside the box, leaving space around it. A large, box-filling scrawl comes out large.

  • To move it, choose Select and drag. Moving only works with Select chosen, so if dragging draws a line instead, you're still in Draw.
  • To remove it, select it and press the small × button, or press Undo.
  • If it landed on the wrong page, remove it, scroll to the right page, and press Sign again.
  • Zoom in with the buttons in the top bar to line it up precisely with a dotted line.

Adding the date, initials and other details

Most forms want more than a signature. Use Text for the date, your printed name, an IC number or a witness's details. Set the Size in the right-hand panel before you click, because it applies to the next box you add. A size close to the form's own text looks neatest.

Some agreements, such as a tenancy agreement, ask for initials on every page. Scroll to each page and press Sign, or type your initials with the Text tool, which is faster for a long document. Draw is useful for ticking a box or crossing out an option that doesn't apply.

Signing a scanned form

Scanned forms work too, because the signature is placed on top of the page like a sticker. What a scan lacks is readable text, so Kopitiam can't find the fields by itself. Press Auto-fill, and it offers Run OCR, which loads a text reader the first time and looks for English labels like Name and Date. Its boxes are best guesses, so check them. Or skip it and place everything by hand.

Is a signature drawn on a PDF legally valid?

For everyday documents, a signature placed on a PDF is widely accepted. Many countries, Malaysia included, have laws that recognise electronic signatures. But some documents, such as wills and powers of attorney, often need wet ink, a witness or a specific process. If you're unsure, ask whoever sent you the document what they accept.

It also helps to know what kind of signature this is. Kopitiam places an image of your signature on the page. A certificate-based digital signature is different: it is tied to a verified identity and shows if the file was changed after signing. If a document specifically asks for that, use an e-signature service that issues one.

A signature image doesn't lock the document. Anyone with the file could edit it later, just as they could with a scanned paper copy. Send the signed PDF only to the person who needs it, and keep your own copy so you can show what you signed.

When signing doesn't work

  • This PDF is password-protected: Kopitiam can't open locked files yet. Open it with the password in your PDF reader, use Print and then Save as PDF, and sign that copy.
  • This PDF has editing restrictions: the sender blocked changes. The same Print and Save as PDF step makes a copy you can sign. If the restriction is there on purpose, ask the sender how they want it signed.
  • Add does nothing: you need to draw something or type at least one letter first.
  • The drawn line doesn't land where your finger is on a narrow phone screen: turn the phone sideways for a wider box, or use Type.

Very large scans are handled on your device, so a 100-page scanned contract may be slow on an older phone. If that happens, open it on a laptop, or use Extract Pages to pull out only the pages you need to sign.

Check the signed copy before you send it

  1. Open the downloaded file, the one ending in -edited, not your original.
  2. Go through every page that needed a signature, initials or a date, and zoom in to check each one sits on its line.
  3. Make sure nothing covers the printed text you were meant to leave readable.
  4. If the file is too big for email, run it through Compress PDF before you attach it.

Your signature, dates and typed details are written onto the page itself, so they look the same to the person who opens the file. Keep the signed copy somewhere you can find it, in case you need to show later what you agreed to.