Is a drawn signature on a PDF good enough?

For everyday agreements, in most jurisdictions, yes — it is a valid electronic signature. Its weakness is evidential rather than legal: a picture of a signature proves little on its own, so the surrounding record has to do the work if it is ever challenged.

What is the difference between an electronic and a digital signature?

Electronic signature is the legal category — any mark made with intent to sign. Digital signature is a specific technology that uses cryptography to bind a signature to a document and a certificate. Every digital signature is an electronic signature; most electronic signatures are not digital ones.

Does flattening a signed PDF invalidate the signature?

It depends which kind. A drawn signature image is unaffected. A cryptographic digital signature will break, because flattening rewrites the page content the signature was computed over — and reporting that break is exactly what it is designed to do.

is an electronic signature on a pdf legal

Are Electronic Signatures Legally Valid?

In the US, the EU, the UK and most comparable jurisdictions, an electronic signature has been legally valid for over twenty years. The interesting question is not whether it counts but what you would need to prove if it were challenged.

The short answer

In the United States, the federal ESIGN Act of 2000 and the state-level UETA establish that a signature cannot be denied legal effect simply because it is electronic. In the European Union, Regulation 910/2014 — eIDAS — does the same, and the UK carried equivalent rules into domestic law. Canada, Australia, India and many others have comparable statutes.

So a signed PDF is not a lesser thing than a signed sheet of paper. Courts have enforced them routinely for two decades.

This is background, not legal advice. If a document genuinely matters — property, employment, anything with real money attached — ask a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction rather than a web page.

The three tiers, and why they exist

eIDAS names three levels, and the distinction is useful even outside Europe because it describes what evidence each kind actually carries.

A simple electronic signature is anything indicating intent — a drawn signature image, a typed name, clicking "I agree". It is valid. If someone denies signing, you prove it with everything around the signature: the email trail, timestamps, IP logs, the audit record.

An advanced electronic signature is cryptographically bound to the signer and to the document, so any later alteration is detectable. This is what a digital signature certificate produces, and it shifts the argument: the document itself carries the evidence rather than the surrounding paperwork.

A qualified electronic signature is an advanced one using a certificate from an accredited provider on secure hardware. Under EU law this alone is automatically equivalent to a handwritten signature, with the burden of proof reversed — the person disputing it has to show it is invalid.

Simple: Drawn or typed. Valid, and fine for the vast majority of documents.
Advanced: Certificate-backed and tamper-evident. Proof travels with the file.
Qualified: Advanced, from an accredited provider. Highest evidential weight in the EU.

Where electronic signatures are not accepted

Most statutes carve out exceptions, and they are broadly similar across jurisdictions: wills and testamentary trusts, some family law documents such as divorce and adoption papers, certain court filings, and notices terminating utilities or health insurance.

Property transfers vary considerably by jurisdiction and are worth checking specifically rather than assuming. So is anything requiring notarisation, which has its own separate and patchier rules on remote execution.

Outside those lists, the practical constraint is usually not law but the counterparty. A bank, insurer, or government office may simply require a particular process regardless of what the statute permits.

What makes a signature hold up

Intent, clearly evidenced. The signer must have meant to sign, and it should be obvious from the record that they did — which is why "click to accept" flows show the document before the button.

Attribution. Something connecting the signature to that person: an account, an email round trip, a verification code, a certificate.

Integrity. Evidence the document has not changed since signing. A drawn signature on a flattened PDF gives you very little here; a digital signature gives you a definitive answer.

A retrievable record, kept by both sides. This is the one most often neglected, and it is the one that decides disputes years later.