How can I sign a PDF document quickly and cheaply?

I need to sign a PDF document. However, Adobe Reader does not let me sign documents. I just need to sign the document, not edit it.

Do I need to buy the full Acrobat software?

Or is there a better, simpler way?

Solution 1:

Ancient Question trumped by passage of time...

Acrobat Reader XI allows for signing documents by several methods including a scanned image.

You can then send the signed document by Email, Fax, have other sign or simply save a copy.

The file now has the signature included within it. You don't even need Acrobat itself, download PDFCreator from SourceForge to generate your document that needs to be signed, send it to the person needing to sign. They open it in Acrobat Reader XI, attach the signature and send it back to you for printing for your records.

Solution 2:

You don't need to buy the full Adobe Acrobat software to digitally sign a PDF file, but you will need to use a tool like Quick PDF Tools, Nitro PDF, etc. If you just need to sign a PDF file as a one off, then these products offer fully functional 14 day trial versions, which would let you sign the file.

Alternatively, you could programmatically digitally sign a PDF file.

Solution 3:

Assuming that the PDF doesn't have security preventing you from doing so, you may open the PDF with LibreOffice Writer (https://www.libreoffice.org/), and then paste your signature image onto it. It can then be exported as a PDF with the signature attached. I wrote a blog post detailing the full process in Ubuntu over at http://colans.net/blog/signing-document-image-ubuntu-1210 . It should be quite similar with other operating systems.