Even better, you trace arrows and circles on the PDF, add notes, paste in a magnifying glass, and more.

Just tap the toolkit button to start marking up PDFs in your iOS Mail inbox.

How to sign a PDF on iPhone or iPad: getting started

First, open a PDF in a Mail message, then tap the little toolkit button in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Don’t see the toolkit button? Tap the PDF to make it appear.

At the bottom of the display, you should now see four new “markup” buttons: one for tracing lines, another that’ll add a magnifying glass to the PDF, a third for adding text, and a fourth for pasting in your signature.

Trace your signature

Once you’ve traced a signature into iOS 9’s Markup tool, you can resize it by dragging the little blue handles.

Let’s try the signature button: tap it, and (assuming you’ve never used this feature before) you’ll be prompted to trace a new signature with your fingertip.

Once you tap “Done,” the signature will appear on the PDF in a box with a “handle” on each corner. Tap, hold, and drag the signature to move it into place, or tap and drag a handle to re-size the signature.

When you’ve got the signature just the way you want it, tap anywhere on the PDF to make the blue editing box disappear. You can always tap the signature again to tweak it, make a copy, or delete it.

Draw arrows or lines

You can add text, arrows, and even magnifying glasses to PDFs using iOS 9’s new Markup tool.

Now, tap the first markup button to draw some lines. You’ll get a choice of eight colors and three brush sizes, and you’ll also get the option to smooth out any uneven brush strokes.

Want to make important words or details in the PDF pop off the screen? Tap the magnifying glass button, then drag the circle over the spot you want to call attention to.

Add some text

Last but not least, tap the text button to add text to the PDF. When you tap the button, the word “Text” will appear on the screen (look carefully; it’s easy to miss).

Tap the word, then tap Edit to add your own text. You can also change the color and tweak the font of the text using the toolbar along the bottom of the screen.

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The post iOS tip: How to sign a PDF directly in Mail (and other PDF tricks) appeared first on here's the thing.

Hi Lee! Yep, you can download a PDF file from the web to your iPhone—or an iPad, for that matter. All you need is a PDF-friendly app that’ll let you store PDF files on your device.

For example, you can open and save a PDF in an e-reader app like iBooks or Amazon’s Kindle app.

You can also open a PDF in a desktop-syncing app like Dropbox or Google Drive, perfect for keeping copies of a PDF on all your Dropbox- or Google Drive-connected devices.

Let’s get started

• First, make sure you’ve installed a PDF-viewing app that can actually save PDF files to your iPhone. Plenty are available in the App Store, but I recommend one of the four mentioned above: iBooks, Kindle, Dropbox, or Google Drive.
• All set? Now, go ahead and open a PDF file on the web or in an email.
• If you opened the PDF in your iPhone’s Safari web browser, you’ll briefly see a pair of buttons at the top of the screen: “Open in…” and “Open in [name of app].” Tap the screen to make those buttons reappear, then tap the “Open in…” button. Did you open the PDF in the body of an email? If so, open the PDF, tap the Action button (the square one with the upward arrow) in the top-right corner of the screen.
• Next, a menu of PDF-viewing apps will slide up from the bottom of the display. Tap the one you want to use, and the PDF file will open in the app of your choice.
• If you picked either iBooks or Kindle, the app will automatically be saved to your phone’s memory. To open the PDF again, just launch either app, then browse the “PDFs” section of your iBooks library or “Docs” in the Kindle app.
• For apps like Dropbox and Google Drive, make sure to save the PDF for “offline” viewing. In Dropbox, open the PDF, tap the three-dot menu button in the top corner of the screen, then tap Favorite. For Google Drive, tap the little “i” button next to the file’s name, then make sure the “Keep on device” setting is switched on.

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Thanks to the new Yosemite update, you can use your Mac’s trackpad to trace your signature with your fingertip, perfect for signing a PDF without having to put pen to paper.

Just click on a saved signature to paste it into a PDF.

Here’s how it works…

• Launch the Preview app (you’ll find it in the Applications folder, or just search for it using Spotlight), click the Tools menu, select Annotate, Signature, click Manage Signatures, then Create Signature.
• A new window will appear with two tabs at the top: Trackpad (for tracing your signature with your Mac’s trackpad) and Camera (for snapping a photo of your signature). Go ahead and select the Trackpad tab, then click the “Click Here to Begin” button.
• Now, just trace your signature on the trackpad, then press any key when you’re done. Happy with the result? Click the Done button, or click Clear to try again.
• Once you click Done, your signature will be saved in the Signatures menu. From now on, you can simply click on a signature to paste it into a PDF. Just drag the pasted signature onto the appropriate dotted line, and use the little blue handles to resize the signature if needed.

Bonus tip

Want to make the Signatures menu appear in the Preview toolbar? Click the View menu, then select Show Markup Toolbar. The Signature button is the one marked with a little squiggly; just click it, select a signature, then drag and drop it wherever it needs to go.

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