How to create initials for signing documents (on iPhone)

A contract says “initial here” and you realise you’ve never actually decided what your initials look like. Most people scrawl something different every time. This is about the step before you stamp them on a page: how to create a clean, consistent initials mark on your iPhone that you can reuse on every document — and, honestly, the free ways to do it before you reach for an app.

What “initials” need to be (and what they don’t)

Your initials on a document are just a shorthand mark that says “I read this page and I’m the same person who signed it.” There’s no official format. Two letters (first + last name) is the norm — “J.S.” for Jane Smith — but three is common too if you have a middle name. They don’t have to match your signature’s style, and they don’t have to be legible to a stranger. What actually matters is that they’re consistent: the same mark on page 3 as on page 11, so the document reads as deliberately completed rather than patched together.

So the real job isn’t “make fancy initials” — it’s “create one initials mark you’re happy with, then use that same one everywhere.”

The free way: draw them in iOS Markup

If you only ever sign the odd document, you don’t need anything extra. Apple’s built-in Markup can create initials on the spot:

Open the PDF in Files or tap the attachment in Mail.
Tap the pencil (Markup) icon in the top-right.
Tap + → Signature → Add or Remove Signature → +.
Here’s the trick most people miss: Markup lets you save a signature and a separate mark. Draw your initials here (not your full name) and save them as a second entry — now they’re reusable, not redrawn each time.
Tap to drop them on the initial line, resize with the handles, tap Done.

Where this is enough: occasional signing, and you don’t mind that a finger-drawing on glass rarely looks like your real pen-on-paper initials. It’s free and already on your phone.

Where it starts to grate, honestly: the drawing is only as good as your steadiest finger-scrawl, there’s no easy “type them in a handwriting style” option, and juggling a signature-plus-initials pair inside Markup’s tiny signature drawer is fiddly. If you initial documents more than a couple of times a year, the redraw tax adds up.

The repeat-signer’s way: create them once in an app

If you’d rather your initials look intentional — and never redraw them again — this is where a dedicated app earns its place. In Signed you create your initials the same three ways you can create a signature:

Draw them with your finger, taking your time on a full-screen canvas rather than a cramped popover.
Type them and pick a real handwriting style — this is the one Markup can’t do, and it’s how you get initials that look like ink instead of a shaky glass-drawing.
Let AI generate a mark from your name if you want a starting point to tweak — the same engine behind an AI signature from your name.

Whichever you choose, they save to your signature and initials library right alongside your full signature and an auto-filled date. From then on, initialling a page is one tap — the same mark every time — and so is the signature and date at the end. Everything happens on your phone; the document you’re initialling is never uploaded anywhere.

Tips for initials you won’t want to redo

Keep them simple. Two clean letters beat an elaborate flourish you can’t reproduce. You’ll be placing this mark on every page — simple travels better.
Match the ink to your signature. Black or dark blue reads as “pen.” If your signature is dark blue, make your initials dark blue too, so the document looks like one hand completed it.
Make them smaller than your signature. Initials sit on cramped lines in page margins. A compact mark drops onto those lines without overlapping the text.
Test them on a real line first. Drop them onto one page, check the size against the “initial here” line, then reuse that exact placement everywhere.

Then: putting them to work

Creating the mark is step one. The document itself usually wants those initials on every page, with the full signature on the last — that per-page part has its own shortcuts, covered in how to add initials to every page of a PDF. And if the document is a full form with fields and checkboxes rather than just an initial line, see how to fill out and sign a form on iPhone.

One honest note to close on: placing an initials image on a PDF is a normal, everyday way to complete most agreements, but it isn’t legal advice. For anything high-stakes, it’s worth a moment to check what that specific document actually requires.