macOSSignaturePreviewMarkupPDF

How to Create a Trackpad Signature on Mac (2026)

Create a signature with your Mac trackpad, camera or iPhone in Preview, then add it to PDFs, images and screenshots. Steps for macOS Tahoe 26 and macOS 27.

May 27, 20268 min readUpdated October 7, 2026

BaziFounder & maker of Pizazoo

To create a trackpad signature on a Mac, open a PDF or image in Preview, click the Show Markup Toolbar button, click the Sign button, then click Trackpad. Click the text as prompted, sign your name on the trackpad with your finger, press any key, and click Done. Your Mac saves the signature, so you can drop it onto PDFs, images and screenshots in Preview, Quick Look and Mail, on macOS Tahoe 26 and macOS 27 alike.

How do you create a trackpad signature on Mac?

Preview is the built-in place to capture a signature. These steps come from Apple's Preview User Guide and are the same in macOS 27 (Golden Gate) and macOS Tahoe 26. Earlier versions back to macOS Sonoma 14 use the same buttons with slightly different wording.

Open the PDF or image you want to sign in Preview.
If the Markup toolbar is not showing, click the Show Markup Toolbar button, then click the Sign button.
If you already have saved signatures, they are listed. To make a new one, click Create Signature if it is shown (Apple).
Click Trackpad, then click the text as prompted.
Sign your name on the trackpad using your finger.
Press any key when you are finished, then click Done. If you do not like the result, click Clear and try again.

The signature is now saved. The next time you click Sign, it appears in the list, ready to place.

How do you get a cleaner trackpad signature?

Press harder for a bolder line. If your Mac has a Force Touch trackpad, pressing your finger more firmly gives a heavier, darker line, per Apple.
Sign at a comfortable size. You resize the signature with its blue handles after you place it, so there is no need to cram it into a corner of the trackpad.
Save more than one. You can keep a full signature and a set of initials. If you use VoiceOver, Apple lets you label each one before you click Done: choose a description such as Initials from the Description pop-up menu, or choose Custom to write your own.
Retry freely. Clear wipes the attempt so you can sign again before you click Done.

Can you create a Mac signature with the camera or your iPhone?

Yes. The same Sign button offers two other capture methods, which help when your Mac uses a mouse instead of a trackpad, or when a finger-drawn signature looks too shaky:

Camera: Click Camera. Sign your name on white paper and hold it facing the camera so the signature is level with the blue line in the window. When it appears in the window, click Done.
iPhone or iPad: Click Select Device to choose a nearby device (if more than one is available). On the device, sign with your finger, or with Apple Pencil on iPad, then tap Done.

The iPhone and iPad option relies on Continuity, so both devices need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on and must meet Apple's Continuity system requirements (Apple). Apple does not list a way to draw a signature with a mouse, so on an iMac or Mac mini without a trackpad, the camera or a nearby iPhone is the documented route.

How do you add your signature to a PDF in Preview?

Open the PDF in Preview and click the Sign button (show the Markup toolbar first if needed).
Click the signature you want to add.
Drag it to where it belongs, then use the handles to adjust its size.
Save the file.

To sign the same mark in several places, such as initials on every page, hold the Option key while you drag a placed signature to duplicate it. Yellow guides appear to help you line the copies up (Apple).

How do you sign a PDF someone emailed you?

Apple's guide has a shortcut for this. In Mail, open the email and double-click the PDF attachment to open it in Preview. Sign it, then choose File > Save and select Reply to [Sender] or New Mail Message. A new email opens with the signed PDF already attached (Apple). If the PDF opens in another app, close it, Control-click the attachment icon, choose Open With, then choose Preview.

How do you sign an image or screenshot on Mac?

The Sign tool is part of Preview's image Markup toolbar too, so the steps are the same: open the image in Preview, show the Markup toolbar, click Sign and place your signature (Apple).

One catch matters a lot here. Apple says that if you annotate an image file, you cannot edit, move or delete the annotations after you save the image. Your signature becomes part of the pixels. If you might need to move it later, Apple suggests converting the image to a PDF first and annotating the PDF instead. Keeping an unsigned copy of the original is a simple safety net either way.

For a screenshot you have just taken, the fastest route is the floating thumbnail. Apple says clicking the thumbnail opens a window where you can mark up the screenshot or share it (Apple). The thumbnail only appears when Show Floating Thumbnail is checked in the Options menu of the Screenshot app (press Shift-Command-5). Apple's screenshot guide does not list the individual tools in that window, so if you do not see Sign there, let the screenshot save and open it with Quick Look or Preview, where Apple documents the tool.

How do you sign a file from Finder without opening an app?

Quick Look and Quick Actions both open the Markup tools, including Sign, straight from the Finder or the desktop (Apple).

With Quick Look

Select the PDF or image in the Finder or on the desktop, then press the Space bar (Apple).
In the Quick Look window, click the Markup button.
Click Sign, then click a saved signature, or click Create Signature and choose Trackpad, Camera or your iPhone or iPad, exactly as in Preview.
Drag and resize the signature, then click Done.

With Quick Actions

Control-click the file, choose Quick Actions, then choose Markup. The file opens in a Quick Look window with the same Markup tools (Apple). This works the same way in macOS Tahoe 26 and macOS 27.

Be careful with both: Apple warns that changes made in the Quick Look or Quick Actions window cannot be undone after you close the window. Before you click Done, Revert removes your changes so you can start over.

Can you sign an email attachment in Mail on Mac?

Yes, for an image or PDF you add to a message you are writing (Apple):

Move the pointer over the attachment in your draft.
Click the Action pop-up menu that appears in its upper-right corner, then choose Markup.
Click Sign and choose a saved signature. To create a new one, Apple points you to Preview.
Click Done when you are finished.

You can change annotations until you send the message. Once it is sent, they become part of the image or PDF, and neither you nor your recipients can modify them.

If the Action menu does not appear, the Markup extension is turned off. Apple gives slightly different paths by version:

macOS version	Where to turn on Markup
macOS 27 and macOS Tahoe 26	System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Extensions > By Category, click the Info button next to Actions, then turn on Markup
macOS Sequoia 15	System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions > Extensions > Actions, then turn on Markup

Apple also lists Markup in Notes, TextEdit and Photos, with tools that vary by file type (Apple).

Where are Mac signatures saved, and do they sync?

One list for every Markup app. Apple says that deleting a saved signature removes it from all apps that use Markup on your Mac, so the signature you create in Preview is the one you see in Quick Look and Mail.
iCloud Drive sync. If you use iCloud Drive, your signatures are available on your other Mac computers that have iCloud Drive turned on. Deleting one also deletes it on those Macs.
Deleting a signature. In Preview, open a file, show the Markup toolbar, click the Sign button, move the pointer over the signature, then click the X to its right.

Apple does not document where on disk the signatures are stored, so the supported way to manage them is the Sign menu itself.

What changed for signatures in macOS Tahoe 26 and macOS 27?

Very little. Comparing Apple's guides version by version:

Preview: the create, place and delete steps are the same in macOS 27, macOS Tahoe 26 and macOS Sequoia 15. The macOS Sonoma 14 guide uses the same buttons with shorter wording.
Quick Look and Quick Actions: the Markup steps are identical in macOS Tahoe 26 and macOS 27.
Mail: the only real change is the path to turn on the Markup extension, which moved to By Category and an Info button in macOS Tahoe 26, as shown in the table above.

So a guide written for an older macOS will still get you there. The details that trip people up are the Mail extension setting and the fact that image annotations become permanent on save.

Why can't I sign with my trackpad?

Work through these, all based on Apple's documentation:

No Sign button: the Markup toolbar is hidden. Click Show Markup Toolbar first. Apple notes that the available tools vary with the type of file.
Your Mac has only a mouse: use Camera, or Select Device for an iPhone or iPad, instead of Trackpad.
Your iPhone does not show up: turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on both devices and check Apple's Continuity requirements.
No Markup in Mail: turn on the Markup extension (see the table above).
You cannot move a signature on an image: the image was saved, which makes annotations permanent. Start again from your unsigned copy.
The line is too faint: press more firmly on a Force Touch trackpad, or capture the signature with the camera from a pen-and-paper original.

Where does Pizazoo's signature tool help?

Disclosure: we make Pizazoo.

For PDFs, use Preview. Pizazoo is built for screenshots and images, and PDFs cannot be imported or signed in it. Its Mac markup editor includes a signature tool alongside redact, blur, pixelate, watermark, text and arrows, so you can sign off on a screenshot and hide an account number in the same editing pass. Pizazoo does not take screenshots itself. It imports the ones you take with Shift-Command-3, 4 or 5 (or apps like CleanShot X and Shottr), and on-device OCR makes the text inside them searchable, so a signed screenshot is easy to find months later.

See the markup editor and signature pages for the full tool list, or download Pizazoo for macOS 14 Sonoma or later.