Why this exists
Every few weeks, one of us needs to sign a PDF — a contract, a tax form, a school document. The mainstream online options all share the same uncomfortable pattern: you upload your private document to a stranger's server, click some buttons, and hope.
That uneasy feeling is what built esignmypdf. The same principle that drives EuKosmos — your data stays on your machine — applies just as well to a one-off signature. Modern browsers can render PDFs, modify them, and save the result, all without any network round-trip. We just had to wire it up nicely.
What we believe
That tools handling sensitive documents should be architected so they cannot see those documents, not just promise they won't look. The difference matters: a policy can change, a database can leak, a CEO can pivot. An architecture is harder to betray.
That a useful tool shouldn't require an account, an email address, or a monthly fee. Many of the world's best small tools are free. We'd like to be one of them.
That the web doesn't need another walled garden. The signing tool here is a single page of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Save it, host it yourself, fork it — it all still works.
How this is sustained
Running esignmypdf costs us almost nothing — Cloudflare's free tier handles the static hosting, the tool itself runs on your computer, and we don't operate any backend. The site is supported by modest display advertising on guide pages. No advertising appears on the signing tool itself. Ad revenue funds the small ongoing costs (domain, occasional development time) and supports our work on EuKosmos.
About EuKosmos
Our main project is EuKosmos, an all-in-one academic research manager. Researchers use it to manage papers, BibTeX, notes, ideas, CVs, and collaborations — all in a local folder they own, with automatic enrichment from ADS, arXiv, InspireHEP, CrossRef, OpenAlex, Semantic Scholar, and other databases. If you're an academic, give it a look.
Get in touch
Found a bug, have a feature request, or want to say hi? Our contact page is the place. We read everything; we reply when we can.