Subject says it.
The inbuilt preview is garbage. I hate Adobe and just wanna sign a document with typical name/date. I tried form filling mode with Preview, but as always, Pdf is the worst format ever. Thoughts?
Should I use Windows? Anything there?
Still amazed PDF signing is such a barrier today. We have AI entertainment up the wazoo but nobody's thought to vibecode a decent PDF signer. Oh wait. That'd require PDF to be an actually usable format by us.
Sorry for rant. This always gets under my skin, and I'm sick of asking for help to do very, very basic tasks. Let this blind curmudgeon fly, stop clipping my digital wings, Adobe!
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The forms are labeled. It's also a text PDF so we're good there.
When pressing Form Filling, absolutely blank all happens. And tryna find the name or date fields and double tapping, split tap, long press, gives no useful options.
Select all? Yeah. Because every Apple app has that option, useful or not. It just works my left earlobe.
Moreover, if I get the keyboard to show, no way to dismiss it without ability to doublecheck my work first, or review. Basically it's a pile of janky, old code that nobody's bothered to spend a few minutes working on despite making billions each year. And using a crappy old document format that has caused more headaches than sour mash made in a bathtub.
Seriously. Does nobody sign digital documents on phones that use VO?
I also don't wanna use DocuSign, assuming it'd even work, because you have to make an account. Bro it's one PDF. I'm not that crowded with PDF contractt just begging me to sign them. And least, in the cloud®, where everything's oh so safe.
Figured it out using Preview.
this may work, it did here. However the PDF in question is a rather simple PDF doc though, so I'm unsure how this will go with many form fields. Obviously for something lengthy like a questionnaire the workflow will be more irritating. I also don't know about combo boxes or other choice style forms. Not yet, anyway. But hey, I'm all about exploring the wonderful world we're so blessed to be part of, oh Apple and friends, I bow to thee and kiss the porcelain feet of giants!!!
1. Load pdf in preview, scroll to the form section.
2. On the bottom of the screen tap the Form Filling btn.
3. You should be able to find the text field. Once there, double tap and type. You will not be able to review your answer, because Apple sucks.
4. if you're stuck in the keyboard, scrub to close it. The go back gesture.
5. For names and such, auto-fill should be able to take care of it. This assumes you have a contact for yourself in your contacts.
6. Close the PDF by hitting Back again. You will be landed in Previews file browser.
Checking your work:
1. Open the PDF again, scroll so the forms are onscreen.
2. Press volume up + sleep to make a screenshot.
3. Open the screenshot, find the canvas or image, and swipe up or down to Explore Image, double tap.
4. If needed, hit Detect Text and then explore. If all is well, your entered info should be visible.
Note: In ios26.5 it seems that screenshots are not autosaved as before. There's a Done and Close buttons now. What this means is you can review an image then hit Close afterward and it's gone. No more accidental screen shot creation when grabbing your phone with the screen on and mashing that volUp and sleep buttons.
If this helped anyone, I'd really appreciate a like and subscribe. And click the bell to be notified about every new video on my....oh wrong platform.
Pointless
Handwritten signatures are pointless in digital documents, due to how easy it is to copy them over to other documents thus falsifying a signature. Here in the EU we can sign with our ID cards, which are proper PKCS#11 smart cards capable of performing qualified digital signatures. This, however, requires a proper computer, since to my knowledge smart card readers are not supported on iOS. Another option, also here in the EU, are special applications made by member states that can digitally sign using a certificate whose private key is in the possession of the national authorities. This has the convenience of allowing people to sign documents using their phones, but I personally have a lot of trouble trusting the private key to something as serious as this to an authority because whoever can access those keys can sign as me without my consent or even knowledge.
Digital signatures are also a lot stronger than handwritten ones, since not only do they identify the signer but they also make it possible to verify, through cryptographic means, whether the document has been tempered with after being signed. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Apple is yet to include the option to digitally sign a document in Preview, despite that having been supported by Adobe's Acrobat Reader for ages.
Here in Portugal, the only option to sign documents using our ID cards on macOS is by either using Adobe's Acrobat Reader or an application made by national authorities that isn't even native to ARM-based Macs yet. I have long-term plans to change this, as well as to create a proof of concept of how to digitally sign documents in a way that survives printing and optical recognition while maintaining some degree of safety.
Finally, I agree that PDF is a bad format, but at least it's self-contained and not proprietary. What I do when I have to fill in a PDF form, accessible or not, is to write the fields and my answers in a completely new PDF sourced from Markdown using pandoc, digitally sign that with my ID card, and deliver that instead. Most entities are open to accepting custom documents as long as they contain the required information, especially in cases like ours.
All valid
I agree that hand-written/typed signatures are pointless. You could just copy the text in, or someone could nab your phone and use the auto-fill feature.
Good suggestion to use pandoc.
Digital signing might be annoying, but it's still better than the old paper method. Perhaps by iOS 98 we'll have some smartcard tech integrated, and a better experience in general on the platform. :)
wow wow wow
what a workaround! very ingenious, in it's way! thanks for figuring this out. it will help me immensely.
Finally, someone has figured out signatures.
This is one of the things that I have had trouble with as a blind person. I tried to learn how to sign my name when I was a kid but I alwasy had problems with the signature guides and I am glad that finally figured a work arround for this issue.