Haftungsausschluss zur elektronischen Signatur

Last updated: July 5, 2026.

The short version: PDF Sign Pad lets you draw, type, upload, or reuse a signature and place it on a PDF. What you get is a simple electronic signature — a visual mark, not a certified or identity-verified one. It's fine for a lot of everyday signing. It is not a substitute for legal advice about whether it's the right kind of signature for *your* document. Read on for what that means.

What PDF Sign Pad's signature is

When you sign a document with PDF Sign Pad, the app renders your drawn, typed, or uploaded mark and flattens it onto the PDF you already had open. That is a simple electronic signature (in some frameworks called a "basic" electronic signature): a mark that shows your intent to sign, created and applied entirely on your own device.

What it is not

PDF Sign Pad's signature is not:

• A qualified or advanced electronic signature under the EU's eIDAS Regulation, which additionally require the signature to be uniquely linked to and capable of identifying you, created under your sole control, and (for a qualified signature) issued by a certified trust-service provider using a qualified signature-creation device.¹
• A certified, notarized, or witnessed signature of any kind.
• Backed by identity verification — we don't check who you are, ask for ID, or verify an email or phone number before you sign.
• Backed by an audit trail — we don't log an IP address, a timestamp-of-signing certificate, or a chain-of-custody record, because there is no server to keep one on. (See our Privacy Policy for what, if anything, is logged, and our Terms of Service §6 for how this disclaimer fits into your agreement with us.)
• Protected by a tamper-evident cryptographic seal — a signed PDF from PDF Sign Pad is a flattened image on the page, not a cryptographically sealed document that detects later edits.

Where simple electronic signatures are generally recognized — and where they usually aren't

Electronic signatures, including simple ones, are broadly recognized as legally valid in many situations:

• In the United States, the federal ESIGN Act and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA), adopted in nearly every state, generally give electronic signatures and electronic records the same legal effect as their paper/ink counterparts for most contracts and transactions.²
• In the European Union, the eIDAS Regulation provides that a simple electronic signature "shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceedings solely on the grounds that it is in an electronic form" — but its evidentiary weight is generally lower than an advanced or qualified signature, and some transactions require a higher tier.³

That said, certain kinds of documents are commonly excluded from e-signature laws, or commonly require something more than a simple electronic signature, in many jurisdictions — for example: wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts; certain court orders, filings, and other official judicial documents; certain family-law records (adoption, divorce, and similar matters); certain notices tied to utility cancellation, eviction/foreclosure, or insurance-benefit cancellation; and documents that a specific law, regulator, counterparty, or court requires to be notarized, witnessed, or signed with a qualified/advanced electronic signature or a wet-ink signature.² This list is general background, not a complete or jurisdiction-specific statement of the law — what applies to your document depends on your jurisdiction, the type of document, and who you're sending it to.

This is not legal advice, and it does not cover every jurisdiction or every kind of document. You are responsible for confirming that a simple electronic signature is legally acceptable for your specific document, transaction, and jurisdiction — including any requirements your counterparty, employer, court, or regulator may impose — before you rely on a signature created with PDF Sign Pad. If you're unsure, or the document is high-stakes or of a kind listed above, consult a licensed attorney in the relevant jurisdiction.

Your saved signature

If you choose to save a signature in your browser for reuse (an explicit, opt-in choice — off by default), that saved mark is treated as personal data. It's stored only on your own device and is never sent to us. See our Privacy Policy for the full disclosure, including how to delete it.

How this relates to our Terms of Service

This disclaimer is incorporated into, and should be read together with, our Terms of Service — particularly the sections on the signature's legal effect, our warranty disclaimer, and our limitation of liability. If anything here and the Terms of Service conflict, the Terms of Service's liability and warranty language governs; this page exists to explain what the signature is, in plain language, not to restate the contract.

¹ Simple / advanced / qualified electronic-signature tiers per the EU eIDAS Regulation (910/2014): European Commission, "eSignature FAQ" and "What is eSignature". ² US ESIGN Act / UETA general framework and commonly-excluded document categories: NTIA, "Electronic Signatures: A Review of the Exceptions to the Federal ESIGN Act and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act". ³ eIDAS Regulation Art. 25(1) non-discrimination principle for simple electronic signatures; evidentiary- weight distinction per the European Commission sources above. These footnotes are background research, not a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction legal opinion — confirm applicability with outside counsel before relying on any specific claim above for a specific jurisdiction.