How to Add a Signature in Google Docs (3 Ways)

There are three ways to add a signature in Google Docs: draw it with Insert > Drawing > New and the Scribble tool, insert a picture of your handwritten signature with Insert > Image, or, if your Google plan includes it, use Tools > eSignature to have people sign the document properly. The first two put a signature on the page. Only the third collects signatures from other people with a record of who signed and when.

Which one you want depends on who’s signing: you, on your own letter, or other people, on something you need back. Each method below is taken from Google’s own help pages.

How do I draw a signature in Google Docs?

Click Insert > Drawing > New, choose the Scribble tool from the line menu, and drag across the canvas to sign. Google’s steps on a computer:

1. Open your document.
2. In the top left, click Insert > Drawing > New.
3. At the top of the drawing window, click the Select line menu and choose Scribble.
4. Click to start, then drag across the canvas to write your signature.
5. Click Select when you’re done drawing, then save the drawing to put it into your document.

Fair warning: signing with a mouse is hard. Even with a laptop trackpad, most people end up with something that looks like a lie-detector printout. If that’s you, the image method below gives a much better result for about the same effort.

The drawing also opens a full set of tools you might find useful around a signature: a Text Box for your printed name and title, and lines for a proper signature rule above them.

How do I insert an image of my signature in Google Docs?

Click Insert > Image > Upload from computer and choose a picture of your signature. Google lists several places the image can come from:

• Upload from computer: an image saved on your device.
• Drive & Photos: an image in your Google Drive or Photos library.
• Camera: take one with your device’s camera.
• By URL: a link to an image.

To get a good image, sign your name in dark ink on plain white paper, photograph it in good light, and crop it tight. Save it to Drive once and you can reuse it in any document.

Once it’s in, click the image to see the layout options. In front of text lets you drop the signature over a signature line without shoving the text around, and Image options lets you set the size and adjust transparency, brightness and contrast. If your photo came out with a grey cast, nudging the brightness and contrast up is worth a try. Google notes that text wrapping and positioning aren’t available in pageless documents, so switch to pages format if those options are missing.

If you’d rather not photograph anything, a free signature generator can make a typed or drawn signature image you can download and insert the same way.

Can I draw a signature in Google Docs on my phone?

Sort of, but I wouldn’t. Google’s Android help describes a markups mode: on a phone you tap Insert > Add markups, pick the Pen, and draw on the document. The catch is in how markups behave. Google says a markup “links to the nearby content,” and “when you edit the linked content, the markup will stretch or shrink.” That’s great for circling a typo. It’s not what you want for a signature, which should stay exactly as you drew it.

For signing on a phone, it’s usually easier to work with a PDF. We cover that in how to sign a document on iPhone and how to sign a PDF on Android.

How do I get other people to sign a Google Doc?

Use Tools > eSignature, place signature fields for each signer, and click Request signature. This is Google’s built-in e-signature feature, and it’s only on certain plans. Google lists Workspace Individual accounts, plus Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Starter, Standard and Plus, Enterprise Essentials and Essentials Plus (when an administrator enables it), and Education Plus users.

If you have it, the flow goes like this:

1. Open the document and click Tools > eSignature.
2. Use Manage signers to set up who’s signing. Google allows up to 10 signers per request.
3. Drag in the fields each person needs: Signature, Initials, Name, Text field, or Date signed. Each signer gets their own color so you can see whose field is whose.
4. Click Request signature, give the PDF a title, and enter each signer’s email address. You can add a message and turn on Automatic reminders, which Google sends every 3 days until the document is signed, for up to 9 days.
5. Accept the terms if asked and click Request signature again.

Google then makes a PDF from your document, locks it, and emails the signers a link. They can sign but not edit. When everyone’s done, the final PDF ends with an audit trail page that logs events like the request, each signature and completion, with timestamps and the signers’ names and emails.

One thing to plan for: once the request is out, you can’t change that PDF. If you spot a mistake, cancel the request, fix the original doc, and send a new one.

Is a signature drawn in Google Docs legally valid?

A drawn or inserted signature can count as an electronic signature, because US law cares about whether you meant to sign, not what the mark looks like. We explain that in is a typed name a legal signature.

The weakness is proof. A picture of your signature in a shared doc can be copied, and the text around it can be edited later with nothing to show it happened, especially in a document several people can edit. For your own cover letter or an internal form, that’s fine. For an agreement with a client, you want the document frozen at the moment of signing, which is what the eSignature flow (or any e-signature service) does by turning it into a locked PDF.

What if my Google plan doesn’t include eSignature?

Download the document as a PDF and send it through an e-signature service, or sign it yourself with a PDF tool.

Say Jordan runs a two-person bookkeeping practice on a basic Google account and drafts every engagement letter in Docs. Each new client gets the letter as a PDF. When Jordan only needed a client to initial a fee change, inserting an image and emailing the PDF worked fine. For full engagement letters, though, Jordan wants the client’s signature, the date and a record of both, which is where a proper signing tool earns its keep. Our guide on how to sign a PDF online walks through the free ways to sign the PDF yourself. SignWren is built for small teams in exactly that spot, with a sealed PDF and audit trail at the end. You can start free.