What is Sign Manual?

The formal term for a personal handwritten signature, used where a document must be signed by an individual's own hand.

Sign manual is old formal usage, still found in constitutional and corporate documents, for a signature written by the person themselves rather than applied by an agent, a seal or a facsimile. Royal warrants, letters patent and some company constitutions use it. Its practical relevance today is that a document requiring a sign manual is a document where a stamped, printed or delegated signature is specifically not enough, which is a question worth settling before choosing how to execute it.

Drop your document here and sign it now. PDF, Word and Excel all work: a .docx or .xlsx is laid out in your browser exactly as it was written, so there is nothing to convert first. Add a signature, a date, a company stamp or a watermark, then download it sealed. Free to start, no account, and the file is never uploaded to open it.

Sign manual and electronic signing

Where an instrument requires a sign manual, the requirement is about who performs the act rather than about ink. Some jurisdictions have modernised the language to accept an electronic signature made personally by the named individual; others have not. This is one of the places to check the specific rule rather than rely on general electronic signature law.

What PDF Verified is, and what it is not

PDF Verified is a tool for preparing, signing, stamping and checking documents. It is not a law firm, a compliance service or a forensic examiner, and nothing here is legal, financial or compliance advice. Requirements differ by country, by document type and by the party asking, so check what applies to your document before you rely on it, and take advice where the document matters. You are responsible for the documents you create, sign and send, and for having the authority to do so: signing or stamping in somebody else name, or as an organisation you do not represent, is forgery whatever tool is used. To the extent the law allows, we accept no liability for how a document made with this tool is used or relied on. The full position is in our terms of service.

Related formalities

Documents that call for a sign manual often carry other formalities in the same breath: a seal, a witness, or attestation. Those are separate requirements and satisfying one does not satisfy the others.