How to create a digital signature: step-by-step guide (free)

"Digital signature" is used for two very different things: an IMAGE of your signature (to paste into a Word file or a PDF) and the ACT of signing a document remotely with legal validity. Both can be done for free in minutes, but they don't serve the same purpose. This guide covers both.

Open a signature drawing tool in your browser, sign with your finger, mouse or stylus and download it. At firmiu.com/en/create-signature you can pick blue or black ink and three stroke widths, and download it as a transparent PNG or an SVG, with no account.

The signature is drawn and exported inside your browser: it isn't uploaded to any server. That matters, because an image of your signature is something you shouldn't hand to just any website.

Sign on a white sheet with a dark pen, take a photo in good light with no shadows, and crop it. Then you'll need to remove the white background so it doesn't cover the lines of the document where you paste it.

It's the option closest to your usual signature, but also the most work: if the photo has a shadow or the paper isn't pure white, the cut-out comes out dirty.

If what you need is to sign a contract — not store an image — the right tool is an electronic signature platform. There you don't paste an image: you sign inside the flow, and the platform records who signed, when, from what device and how their identity was verified.

With Firmiu you upload the PDF, place where each signature goes and send the link. Each signer draws their signature and confirms it with a 6-digit code sent to their email. At the end, the PDF carries a certificate page with the document's SHA-256 fingerprint.

On its own, not much. An image can be copied and pasted into any document by anyone, so it doesn't prove that YOU signed or when. It's fine for letters, presentations or internal documents, but in a contract with money at stake, what carries weight is the audit trail that comes with the signature.

So keep the two apart: the image for everyday use, and an electronic signature with a record for anything someone might dispute later.

Use a thick stroke: thin lines get lost when printed or viewed on a phone. Prefer dark blue or black. Download it as a transparent PNG so it looks natural on any background, and crop it to the ink so it doesn't float far from the signature line.