How to sign a document sent to you and send it back

First: how did the document reach you?

It arrived as	What you do	What it costs you
An email from Attest whose subject starts with "Signature requested by"	Click Review and sign and sign on that page. There is nothing to send back	Nothing, on any plan
A PDF attached to an email	Sign it in your own Attest account, then reply with the signed copy	One of your documents: 2 free in total, then the Signing plan, $5 a month for 20

Before you click any signing link, make sure the request is real: how to tell a real signing request from a phishing email shows what to check. A link from another e-signature service collects your signature on that service's own page. An Attest invitation names the sender's email address and the document's title, and carries their note if they wrote one.

Sign a document sent to you through Attest

You need no account, no password and no plan.

1. Open the email and click Review and sign. The page shows the document's title and the sender's note. If the sender set a signing order and it isn't your turn yet, the page says "Not your turn yet", and Attest emails you when it is. If the document expired, was withdrawn or was declined by another signer, the page says so as soon as it opens; for an expired one it reads "This document expired" and asks you to ask the sender to send it again, which they do with a new expiry date.
2. If this is your first document on Attest, the page tells you the document is end-to-end encrypted. Click Set up with a passkey and confirm with Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or your device PIN. A passkey is a cryptographic key only you control; with most passkey providers, setting it up takes one prompt. On a computer without its own passkey, choose your browser's "Use a phone or tablet" option and confirm on your phone.
3. If your passkey provider can't protect the key on its own, Attest also shows a recovery phrase. Save it somewhere safe, check I saved my recovery phrase. and click Continue.
4. If you just set up your key, the page says "You're set up." The sender's device needs to unlock the document for you, because it's end-to-end encrypted, so Attest has emailed them that it's waiting for them to unlock it, and they unlock it with their passkey. There's nothing for you to do until then. You can close the page: Attest emails you the moment it's unlocked ("Ready to sign, from [sender]: [title]"), and if the page is still open it opens the document by itself. If you already had an Attest key, the document opens at once.
5. The page tells you how many places you sign. Click Open and start signing and confirm with your passkey, which unlocks your key, and the document is decrypted in your browser. If Attest showed you a recovery phrase in step 3, it may ask for it here: type it and click Unlock and open.
6. Follow the bar at the top. It counts your required fields, and its Next button (for example "Next: date signed") takes you to the next one. Other signers' fields are shown faintly, labeled with who fills them.
7. The first time you click a signature, initials or full name field, the Adopt your signature window opens. Type your full name, not your email address; it is needed either way. Pick one of the handwriting styles, or switch to Draw and sign with your mouse, trackpad or finger, then click Adopt and sign here. Your initials are made from that name.
8. Click each date, initials and full name field to fill it, and type into any text field. A text field marked "(optional)" can stay empty.
9. When the bar reads "Every field is complete", click Sign with your passkey and confirm. Your passkey signs a statement naming the document's fingerprint and everything you entered.

If the sender added no fields, the page asks you to Open and review the document instead: open it, check I have reviewed this document., type your full name and click Sign with your passkey.

If you don't want to sign, click Decline to sign (or Decline, on a document without fields) and confirm. That closes the document for every party and emails the sender.

After you sign

The page shows "Signed and sealed". If others still have to sign, it tells you the signed copy will be at the same link once every party has signed. When the last person signs, Attest emails every party a link to the certificate (the subject starts with "Completed:"), and your link shows View and download the signed copy.

Your link opens the signed copy for 30 days after the document is completed. After that, go to attest.datahubz.com/signin, click Email me a sign-in link with the same email address, open Agreements in the menu (it reads Documents on accounts that signed up for signing only) and click View the signed copy. How to download the signed copy and its certificate covers each file you can keep.

There is nothing to send back. The sender, and every other party, downloads the same sealed copy.

Sign a PDF someone emailed you, and send it back

This is for a document that reached you as an attachment, such as a contract a client's lawyer emailed you to sign and return. The tutorial Sign your own documents shows these steps.

1. Go to attest.datahubz.com/sign and click Start free. Type your email address, click Email me a sign-in link and open the link Attest sends you.
2. Set up your signing key, once. Open Security, click Set up with a passkey and confirm. Save the recovery phrase Attest shows you (Attest can't recover it), check I saved my recovery phrase. and click Continue.
3. Open Documents in the menu (it reads Agreements on accounts that use every Attest tool) and click Sign a document yourself.
4. Click Attach the document to be signed and choose the PDF, up to 8 MB. Its file name becomes the title, which you can change.
5. Under Verification, keep Public certificate, or choose Private so that only you can see the certificate.
6. Click Next: place your signature, then click the page where you sign, and where you initial or date if the document asks for it.
7. Click Continue to sign. The same signing page every signer uses opens: click Open and start signing, adopt your signature, fill your fields and click Sign with your passkey.
8. You are the only signer, so the signed copy is ready right there. Click View and download the signed copy. When its header reads "every party signed, sealed and anchored", click Download signed copy. If it reads "anchoring now (preliminary copy)", close it and open it again a little later: on the Free plan the anchor is written within about 10 minutes, and on the Signing plan the moment the document is complete.
9. Reply to the sender with the PDF attached.

If the sender needs the original page count, for example for a filing, click Signed pages only instead. It saves just the document's own pages, with your stamp on them, and it verifies on its own too.

What the sender receives from you

The PDF you send back proves itself. It holds the signed pages, with a "Signed with Attest" stamp on your signature and a seal line at the foot of every page, a certificate of completion, the audit trail up to completion and a "Verify it yourself, without us" page, with the full evidence, the original document and a standalone verifier attached inside.

Add a line such as "Signed copy attached. To check it, drop the PDF on attest.datahubz.com/verify, or open the verifier attached inside it." The verify page confirms it is the exact file that was recorded and anchored, and, if you kept the certificate public, the code on your stamp opens the agreement's certificate (a private one tells them only that it exists and is private). Checking is free and needs no account.

Is a document signed this way legally binding?

Attest signatures are electronic signatures. Electronic signatures are recognized for most agreements in the United States (the ESIGN Act and UETA) and the European Union (eIDAS). Some documents, such as wills or certain notarized deeds, have special rules in many places: check yours.

Each one carries evidence anyone can check: a passkey signature over the document's fingerprint and the signer's entries, an audit trail inside the sealed copy and a public blockchain anchor. This is general information, not legal advice.