Updated on 30 September 2026 by the Proposal Expert editorial team
Three ways to sign a Google Doc, and which one your client can use
To add a signature in Google Docs, click Insert > Drawing > New, pick Scribble under Select line, draw your name and save the drawing into the document. If you already have a scanned signature, insert it with Insert > Image instead. For a document that someone else has to sign, Google Docs has a built-in eSignature feature under Tools > eSignature, but Google offers it only to Workspace Individual accounts and certain paid Workspace plans. Below are the steps for each method, what works on a phone, and whether each kind of signature is legally binding.
On your computer, open the document in Google Docs and click the spot where you want your signature. In the top left, click Insert > Drawing > New. The drawing editor opens with an empty canvas. Drawings in Google Docs are made with Google Drawings, the same tool you can open from Google Drive.
At the top of the drawing editor, find and click Select line, then pick the type of line you want. Choose Scribble. Google also offers Line, Arrow, Curve, Polyline and two kinds of connector, but only Scribble follows your hand freely, which is what a signature needs.
Click to start, then drag across the canvas to write your name. A trackpad, a mouse or a touch screen with a stylus all work. You may need a few strokes for a signature with separate parts, such as a first name and a surname. To adjust a stroke afterwards, click Select at the top and click the line. You can drag it to move it, drag the blue boxes at the corners to resize it, and use the buttons above the canvas to change the line colour and thickness.
Save and close the drawing, and it appears in your document. If the signature has to sit on a line rather than push the text down, click it and choose a layout option such as In front of text or Wrap text. Google documents these layout options for images and notes that they are only available in documents in pages format, not in pageless format.
Google Docs saves your changes automatically. To send a fixed copy, click File > Download and choose a file type, such as PDF. A PDF is harder for the recipient to change by accident than a shared Google Doc. To reuse your signature, create it once in Google Drive with File > New > More > Google Drawings, then insert it into any document with Insert > Drawing > From Drive, click the drawing and click Select. The inserted drawing stays linked to the original. Click Unlink if later changes to the original should not carry over.
Sign your name on white paper, scan it or take a clear photo, and save it as an image file. In Google Docs on a computer, click where the signature should go and click Insert > Image. Choose where the image comes from and click Insert or Open. Once the image is in the document, click it to choose a layout, and use Image options > All image options to set the size and rotation or, under Adjustments, the transparency, brightness and contrast. A little extra brightness can help a grey scanned background blend into a white page.
Google Docs has its own eSignature feature. On your computer, open the document and click Tools > eSignature. A side panel opens, and you drag fields into the document: Signature, Initials, Name, Text field and Date signed. With more than one signer, choose the signer under Insert fields for, and use Manage signers to add up to 10 signers. Each signer gets their own colour, and a document can hold up to 200 fields. When the fields are in place, click Request signature, give the PDF a title, enter each signer's email address, add a message if you like and click Request signature again. Google turns the document into a PDF, locks it and emails the signers a link. If you turn on Automatic reminders, signers who have not finished get a reminder after 3 days and then every 3 days, for up to 9 days. When everyone has signed, the final PDF ends with an audit trail page that logs the request, the signatures and the completion with timestamps, plus the name and email of each party. You can also start a request from a PDF in Google Drive: open the PDF and, at the top right, click Menu > eSignature. According to Google, the feature is available to these accounts:
Partly. In the Google Docs app for Android, iPhone and iPad you can insert a signature image: tap Insert, tap Image, choose where the image comes from and tap the photo. Google's help describes creating drawings only for the computer version. On Android, the Docs app also has markups, which let you write on the document with a pen. On a phone, tap Insert > Add markups. On a large screen, tap the Markups toggle in the top toolbar. Tap the Pen, write your signature, then tap the Checkmark on a phone or the Markups toggle on a large screen to leave markups mode. Google explains that a markup is linked to nearby content and stretches or shrinks when that content is edited, which makes it better suited to notes than to a formal signature. The eSignature steps in Google's help are written for a computer.
A drawing or image of your signature in a Google Doc is a picture. It shows your intent to sign, but anyone who can edit the document can move, copy or delete it. An electronic signature is the broader legal term. The US ESIGN Act defines it as an electronic sound, symbol or process, attached to or logically associated with a record and adopted by a person with the intent to sign it. The EU eIDAS Regulation defines it as data in electronic form that the signatory uses to sign. Your drawn name falls under both definitions, and so does a signature made through Google's eSignature feature, which adds a locked PDF and an audit trail with the timestamps and email address of each signer. A digital signature is a specific, certificate-based method. It uses a digital ID to confirm the signer's identity and to detect changes made after signing. Google's help pages for Docs describe drawings, images and eSignature, not certificate-based digital signatures. If you need one, download the document as a PDF and sign it with a digital ID in a PDF program such as Adobe Acrobat.
The law in the US, the UK and the EU accepts electronic signatures in principle. The practical questions are whether you can prove who signed, and whether a specific law demands a stricter form. A drawing in a shared Google Doc is weak proof on its own. An eSignature request, which produces a locked PDF with an audit trail, gives much stronger evidence of who signed and when. This is general information, not legal advice.
Usually it comes down to your account type, a permission or the format of the document.
If you write quotes in Google Docs, you have three options. You can sign the quote yourself with a drawing and send it as a PDF, but the client still has to sign it and send it back. With a Workspace plan that includes eSignature, you can add a Signature field and a Date signed field for the client, send the request with Tools > eSignature, and the client signs a locked PDF with an audit trail. Or you use software built for quotes and proposals. Proposal Expert lets you create, send and track the quote or proposal in one place, and your client signs it with an eIDAS simple electronic signature, backed by a trusted timestamp and a sealed audit trail. Proposal Expert's free plan includes 3 proposals and 3 electronic signatures a month. It signs proposals made in the app, not Google Docs or uploaded PDFs, so you would build the quote there rather than in Docs.
Sign on paper, scan or photograph it and save the image. In Google Docs on a computer, click Insert > Image > Upload from computer and choose the file. You can also draw it directly with Insert > Drawing > New and the Scribble line. In the Android, iPhone and iPad apps, tap Insert and then Image.
Typing your name at the end of a document can count as an electronic signature if you type it with the intent to sign. In Google's eSignature feature, a signer can choose Type, enter their full name and let Google create a signature in a standard style, then click Adopt and sign.
The signer opens the email and clicks the link. If the document has text fields, such as a job title, they fill those in first. Then they click each coloured field assigned to them, create a signature with Type or Draw, click Adopt and sign, and click Mark Complete at the top. After reviewing the Terms of Service, they click Agree & Continue. A signer who disagrees can click Reject instead.
Google's eligibility list for the eSignature feature covers Workspace Individual accounts and certain Business, Enterprise and Education plans, and does not include free personal accounts. Google suggests the Workspace Individual plan to people who want the feature without a Workspace subscription.
On Android, open the PDF in the Google Drive app, tap the annotate button at the bottom right and write your signature with the pen, then save the original or a copy. To ask someone else to sign a PDF, open it in Google Drive on a computer and click Menu > eSignature, if your plan includes the feature.