For the great majority of everyday agreements, yes — and it has been for over two decades. Electronic signatures are recognised in law across most of the world, and a signed PDF is routinely enforceable. The interesting questions are the narrower ones: what makes a signature valid, which documents are excluded, and what a court would actually want to see if the signature were ever disputed.
This is general orientation, not legal advice. Laws differ by jurisdiction and change; for anything consequential, ask a lawyer in the relevant country.
The laws
United States. Two instruments do the work. The federal ESIGN Act (2000) provides that a signature or contract "may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form." At state level, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) has been adopted almost universally, with New York operating its own comparable statute. Together they mean an electronic signature is not a lesser form of signature.
European Union. The eIDAS Regulation recognises electronic signatures across all member states and defines three tiers of increasing assurance:
- A simple electronic signature — data attached to a document indicating intent. Your drawn or typed signature.
- An advanced electronic signature (AdES) — uniquely linked to the signer, capable of identifying them, created under their sole control, and detecting subsequent alteration.
- A qualified electronic signature (QES) — an advanced signature made with a qualified device and a certificate from a qualified trust service provider. Only this tier carries automatic legal equivalence to a handwritten signature across all member states.
Crucially, eIDAS says a simple electronic signature cannot be denied legal effect merely for being electronic. Lower tiers are valid; they simply carry more of an evidential burden if challenged.
Elsewhere. The UK retains an eIDAS-derived framework post-Brexit. Canada has PIPEDA and provincial equivalents, Australia the Electronic Transactions Act, India the Information Technology Act, and most of the rest of the industrialised world has something comparable. Many are modelled on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures, so the principles rhyme internationally.
What makes a signature valid
Across jurisdictions the requirements are broadly consistent:
Intent to sign. The signer must have meant to sign. This is the substantive requirement, and it is why the form of the mark matters so little — a typed name applied deliberately is a signature; an image of your signature applied by someone else is not.
Consent to transact electronically. Both parties must be willing to do business this way. Usually implied by conduct — the parties exchanged the document by email and signed it — though some consumer contexts require explicit consent, and in the US, ESIGN sets specific disclosure requirements for consumer transactions.
Attribution. The signature must be connectable to the person. An email trail, an account login, an IP record, or a verified identity all serve. This is where a bare signature image is weakest: the mark alone does not prove who applied it.
Record integrity and retention. The signed document must be capable of being retained and accurately reproduced by all parties. Keep your copy.
Where the risk actually sits
Enforceability is rarely the issue. Proof is. If a signature is disputed, the question is not "are electronic signatures legal?" but "can you show this person signed this document on this date?"
A signature image dropped onto a PDF proves relatively little on its own. What strengthens it is the surrounding record: the email thread showing you sent the document and they returned it signed, timestamps, the counterparty's subsequent conduct in performing the contract. In practice this evidence is usually abundant and disputes are rare — but it is the reason e-signature platforms sell audit trails, and the reason those trails are worth paying for on high-value agreements.
If you want cryptographic rather than circumstantial proof, that is a digital signature — certificate-based, tamper-evident, and identifying the signer through a certificate authority. It is a genuinely different mechanism from a signature image. See digital signatures vs electronic signatures.
What is excluded
Most jurisdictions carve out categories where electronic signatures are not sufficient. Commonly:
- Wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts — though several jurisdictions have introduced electronic wills legislation, often with strict conditions.
- Certain family law documents — divorce, adoption, and related proceedings.
- Some property transfers and deeds, where witnessing or registration formalities apply.
- Documents requiring notarisation, though remote online notarisation is now permitted in many US states and elsewhere.
- Certain court filings, which follow their own rules.
- Some negotiable instruments and letters of credit.
- Specific statutory notices — termination of utilities, eviction, insurance cancellation, product recalls — where a jurisdiction may require paper.
The exclusions vary meaningfully between countries and between US states. If your document falls near one of these, check rather than assume, and the simplest route is often to ask the receiving party what form they require.
Practical guidance
For routine business — NDAs, service agreements, purchase orders, onboarding forms, consent forms — a signature applied in a PDF editor is sufficient and normal. Sign it, keep the email thread, keep your copy.
For high-value or contested-risk agreements, use a platform with an audit trail, or a certificate-based signature. The cost is trivial against the value of the evidence.
For anything in an excluded category, or where a counterparty specifies a qualified signature, follow their requirement rather than arguing about it.
Always: confirm the version you are signing matches what was agreed, date the document, keep your own copy somewhere durable, and flatten it before sending so your signature and entries cannot be quietly altered.
Signing one
When you sign a PDF in Docento.app, you are creating a simple electronic signature: you demonstrate intent by placing the mark deliberately, the exchange establishes consent, and the exported PDF is the record. For the overwhelming majority of agreements people sign in a given year, that is exactly what the law contemplates and exactly what is needed.
