If you use your Mac for work, you might frequently be needing to sign PDF files. We all know how tedious a task it is to print the file, sign it, and then scan or take a picture of it so you can send it. Fortunately, Apple thought about this and provided Mac users with a better solution.

On a Mac, you can quickly sign a PDF file using the Preview App, and there are two methods of doing that. Check them out below.

Sign PDF using your Mac’s Camera

Double click on the PDF file you want to sign and by default, it should open in the Preview app. Once the file loads, click on the ‘Signature’ icon on the toolbar and then select the ‘Camera’ option.

Now, take a white paper and a pen, and put your signature on it. After that, hold your signature on the paper in front of the camera. Don’t worry about the inverted image, preview will fix it once it captures the signature.

Once the camera captures the signature, it will display it on the screen. Be patient, though. It might take a while. When it shows on the screen, verify that it’s correctly scanned and click on the ‘Done’ button.

If the captured Signature doesn’t seem correct or clear enough, click the ‘Clear’ button (on the left) and the software will try to recapture the signature.

You can also use the ‘Menu bar’ within the Preview app to bring up the Camera capture screen.

Go to Tools » Annotate » Signatures and select ‘Manage Signatures’ option. Then, click on the ‘Camera’ button and follow the same steps mentioned above.

Sign PDF using the Trackpad on your Mac

If you think you can draw a good signature using the Trackpad on your Macbook, there’s an option for that as well in the Preview app.

To get started, open the PDF file you want to sign. It should open the in the Preview app by default. Click on the ‘Signature’ icon and then click the ‘Trackpad’ button on the pop-up screen. At last, click on the “Click Here to Begin” area.

Now, you need to draw your signature on the trackpad with your finger, you could also use an Apple Pencil if you have one. Once done, hit any key on the keyboard to finish.

If the signature looks good enough, click the ‘Done’ button.

If the signature doesn’t seem impressive enough, click the ‘Clear’ button and try again.

Conclusion

While the ‘Trackpad’ method is faster, the Camera capture is more accurate and pretty natural-looking way to sign a PDF file on Mac.

That said, you could also use free tools like PDF24 to digitally sign a PDF file online.