Electronic signature by app
The hard part is almost never the signature — it is getting the document out of whatever app it arrived in. Find that app below and you get the exact taps: the free route first, then Signed, plus the catch that particular app throws at you.
Most paperwork still arrives as an email attachment. iOS can mark up an attachment without it ever leaving the mail app — these pages show the exact taps for each client.
A .docx or a Pages file is not a PDF, so the first job is always the same: export a PDF from the app it lives in, then sign that. These pages give the export path per app.
When the file is already saved somewhere, iOS Quick Look plus Markup can usually do the whole job. Where a provider preview gets in the way, the page says how to get past it.
Some of these already have a signing tool of their own, and it is free. Every page here names that first — you should not install anything you do not need.
Documents sent over chat are the easiest case on iOS: the attachment preview is a Quick Look preview, and Quick Look has Markup built in.
Notes apps hold PDFs but rarely sign them. A couple of them let you handwrite straight onto the page, which is genuinely all some people need.
A PDF opened in a mobile browser is a dead end until you get it out of the tab. These pages cover the download-then-sign route for each browser.
Portals are the one category where the answer is often "sign it inside the portal". These pages say when to do that and when downloading the PDF is the faster path.
Signed keeps your signature, initials and today’s date ready, and exports a flattened PDF so nothing can be dragged off the page later. Local-first: nothing you sign is uploaded, and there is no cloud copy on any server.
On a lot of these apps the honest answer is that you do not need Signed at all — Apple Markup is free and already on your iPhone, Adobe Acrobat Reader has its own Fill & Sign, GoodNotes and Notability already let you handwrite on the page, and an HR portal usually wants the signature captured inside the portal. Each page says so where it applies. Signed is a signing tool, not legal advice — for documents with real legal weight, check whether yours needs a notary or witnesses where you live.
Get Signed — free on the App Store Get → 