How to Sign a Form and Fax It from Your iPhone

To sign a form and fax it from an iPhone, open it in the FaxUp app, tap Fill & Sign to type and draw your signature, then enter the fax number and send. Check first whether the recipient accepts an electronic signature: the IRS doesn't for Forms 2848 and 8821 by fax.

Filling in a form, signing it and faxing it used to mean a printer, a pen and a fax machine. On an iPhone it can be one flow in one app. The only real question is whether the office on the other end accepts a signature drawn on a screen.

Sign and fax in the FaxUp app

1. Open the form in FaxUp: share the PDF to FaxUp from Mail or Files, pick it from inside the app, or scan the paper with the app's scanner.
2. Tap Fill & Sign.
3. Tap where text goes and type: name, address, account number. Add today's date where the form asks for it.
4. Add your signature: draw it with your finger and put it on the signature line.
5. Check every page. Zoom in on the signature line: on a fax, a thin, light signature can break up.
6. Enter the fax number, add a cover page if needed, and send.

Sign in Safari, then fax

Prefer not to install anything? The free fill and sign PDF tool works in Safari. It runs in your browser, so the PDF stays on your phone while you work on it. When you are done, send the signed PDF to faxup.net/send.

When a drawn signature isn't enough

Some recipients require an ink signature on paper for a faxed form. The clearest example is the IRS: the instructions for Form 2848 (power of attorney) and Form 8821 (tax information authorization) say that by mail or fax the signature must be handwritten, and that digital, electronic or typed signatures are only accepted when the form is submitted online.

For a form like that:

1. Fill in the text on your phone if you like, then print it, or print the blank form and fill it by hand.
2. Sign it with a pen. Black or dark blue ink.
3. Scan the signed page with the FaxUp app's scanner or the free phone document scanner.
4. Fax the scan. The numbers for IRS forms are in faxing the IRS from your phone.

For other forms, look for a signature section in the instructions. If they don't say, and the document is important, ask the office whether an electronic signature is acceptable before you send.

Make the signature survive the fax

A fax prints in black and white at about 200 lines per inch. To keep a signature legible:

• Draw it larger rather than smaller, and with a steady stroke.
• Keep it inside the signature box, away from the page edge: fax machines can lose a strip at the edges and print a header across the top.
• For a pen signature, use dark ink and scan in good light.
• Run the final PDF through the fax preview to see the printed result.

Keep a copy and the proof

Save the signed PDF. With email notifications on in the FaxUp app, a delivered fax also brings a transmission report PDF with the number, page count, time and a transmission reference. See fax confirmation reports.