There are lots of reasons why you’d want to remove a digital or electronic signature from a signed PDF on your Mac or Windows PC. You might notice a typo, might want to make the signed PDF look more professional with a new layout design, or maybe you want to use it as a template so everybody can add or fill in new items. Whatever your reason, removing someone else’s digital signature seems to be complicated, just like a whole beast to you, but there are specialized app to get the job done, even, we can use online free tools to remove some simple signature from a PDF.

Table of Contents

1# Adobe Acrobat —Ultimate App to Remove Any Digital Signature from A PDF

Which app you choose to remove the PDF signature will largely depend on how often you deal with PDF files and how much you want to pay. The more you have, the more you will benefit from such a tool, though it may comes at a price. If you have looked into the electronic signatures on a PDF, you will know that the signature inserted as an image in your PDF can be easily removed, while the signature with a certificated ID is quite complicated to be deleted, also, we may have signatures in a scanned PDF or a protected PDF, Adobe Acrobat is the ultimate app that remove all these types of signature: typed, drawing, image, certificate and scanned.

It offers plentiful of tools, so you won’t need to install extra plugin or app to do other jobs. It is professional and gives customizable options, but it is still simple to use and get your requests done in seconds within one or several clicks. It is perfect for business workflow, there are tools for efficient review, file compare, signature and submission, running an unlimited number of automatic tasks quickly and reliably.

Easily remove a digital signature from PDF in Adobe Acrobat if the signature is typed, drawing or an image

  1. Fire up Adobe Acrobat on your computer.
  2. Open the PDF.remove image signature 1
  3. Head to Edit, select the signature image and Delete.remove image signature 2
  4. Hit Save.

Remove electronic signature from a scanned PDF in Acrobat

  1. Open the scanned PDF in Acrobat.remove scanned signature 1
  2. Head to Edit and OCR will be started automatically on your PDF, the texts and images will be selectable.remove scanned signature 2
  3. Select the signature, right click to Delete.remove scanned signature 3
  4. Hit Save button.remove scanned signature 4

Remove someone else’s digital signature with certificate ID in Adobe

  1. Fire up Adobe Acrobat on your computer.
  2. Open the PDF.remove signature field 1
  3. Head to All tools> Prepare a form.remove signature field 2
  4. Select the signature block or field, then right click to Clear Signature first.
  5. Click on the signature block again and click Cancel.
  6. Then right click on the signature field and click Delete.remove signature field 3
  7. Hit Save button.

Can’t remove signature from PDF? Unlock the file first.

  1. Open the locked PDF and enter your password.remove locked signature 1
  2. Then go to All tools> Protect a PDF> Remove security.remove locked signature 2
  3. Then follow above steps to remove signature from your PDF.

To remove digital signature from PDF in Adobe Acrobat, here is the video for you, starting from 00:51,

2# Sejda — Online & Free

Guess you just don’t want to run into a paywall and install an app to remove someone else’s signature from a PDF, right off the bat comes with online free tools for you.

Though online free PDF tools have both free and premium account, you can remove simple signature from several PDFs just with a free tier. Sejda is picked here to remove a image signature from your PDF, to remove signature block or delete signature with ID, go back to Acrobat.

what really sets Sejda PDF Editor apart is its polished interface and great PDF editing feature, which is perfect to edit the text, image, link in the file. Also, you can use it to remove a image signature from PDF.

  1. Navigate to sejda.com/pdf-editor.
  2. Upload the file.
  3. Click on Image icon, then select the signature image, click the Trash bin icon to delete.remove signature online 1
  4. Apply changes and save the file to your computer.

3# Google Docs — Online & Free

The second top option to remove signature from a PDF online and free, is Google Docs. While most online free PDF editors work in similar ways, the steps of using this tool are as easy as follows:

  1. Log into your Google Drive, upload the file.
  2. Right click the PDF thumbnail and open with Google Docs.remove signature online 2
  3. Select the signature and delete it.remove signature online 3
  4. Head to File> Download as> PDF.

4# LibreOffice — Offline & Free

We also have an offline free solution to remove someone else’s digital signature from a PDF, by using LibreOffice. It is an open source PDF editor that allow users editing PDFs in Word.

It can remove all kinds of digital signatures, including typed signature, drawing signature, image signature and certified signature with ID. But the biggest disadvantage is losing format. LibreOffice converts your PDFs into Word, then offers you word-alike tools and options to edit the file. So, you may need to revise the formatting if you want your file look the same as the original one.

  1. Open PDF in LibreOffice.
  2. Select the digital signature and press Delete key.remove pdf signature free 1
  3. Then click on Export, choose PDF as output format.remove pdf signature free 2

You can check this Shorts to know how to remove a digital signature from PDF:

5# PDFgear — Offline & Free

If you need a free offline PDF editor that remove someone else’s signature without losing format, PDFgear is worth a try. Though it doesn’t remove typed, drawing or image signature, it can easily remove the digital signature with a certificate ID that is done in advanced PDF editing tool like Adobe Acrobat.

  1. Grab a free copy of PDFgear from its official website, fire up the app.
  2. Drag and drop your PDF to the app, and open it.remove signature pdfgear 1
  3. From Home window, just select the digital signature and press Delete key to remove the digital signature.remove signature pdfgear 2
  4. Then go to File> Save.

6# Preview — Mac & Free

One of the reasons that gained Apple a considerable market grip is that it comes pre-loaded with some useful productivity tools, like Preview. That’s why Mac users will first come to Preview whenever they run into a PDF issue. We can use Preview to remove or erase a signature from both native and scanned PDF, but this process takes much longer time than that using Acrobat.

  1. Open PDF in Preview.remove signature preview 1
  2. Show markup toolbar, and choose a rectangular shape, choose border color as None and select fill color as White.remove signature preview 2
  3. Then move the white shape to the signature and cover it.remove signature preview 3
  4. Head to File> Save.remove signature preview 4

Best Way to Remove Electronic Signature from PDF

The best option in my opinion really is to use a dedicated app like Adobe Acrobat, just take a look at the steps we listed for you and grab a 7-day free trial to remove on your computer, as it provides the easiest and most all-rounded methods to remove a PDF signature.