In my line of work as a freelancer, I often receive documents, like contracts and release forms, that require my signature. Fortunately, it’s seldom the case that I have to print out a document, sign it with an actual pen, scan the signed paper, and then email the scanned document with my signature. In most cases, I just need to affix my digital signature to the documents.

Especially on iOS, putting one’s digital signature on a document is easiest when that document is in PDF format. But the thing is, on many occasions, what gets emailed to me is a Word document, which I need to convert to PDF first before I can digitally sign on my iPhone. Thankfully, I’ve mastered the trick to create and sign PDFs without ever leaving the Mail app on iOS, which you, too, can learn, for whatever purpose you might need it for, by reading the rest of this article.