Turn a photo of my signature into a clean image

When you need this

You need to sign a PDF and every method you try leaves a grey rectangle around the signature, as if it were stuck on with tape. The fix is to take the paper out of the picture, leaving only the ink, so the signature sits on the document the way it would if you had signed the page itself.

How to use it

1. Sign on plain white paper with a dark pen. A black or blue biro or a marker. Not pencil, not a faint gel pen.
2. Photograph it flat, in daylight, from directly above. No shadow across the page, phone not at an angle.
3. Open the photograph here. The paper is removed and only the ink is kept.
4. Save the transparent PNG.

What it does and does not do

• The background becomes genuinely transparent, not white. That is what lets it sit over a line on a form without covering the line.
• It keeps the pen strokes, including where the pen pressed harder, rather than turning your signature into a flat shape.
• Lined or off-white paper causes trouble. Lines and shadows are ink as far as this is concerned. Plain white, well lit.
• Keep the file private. A clean transparent signature is a useful thing for somebody else to have. Store it where your photographs are not shared automatically.

Using it afterwards

• On a PDF: sign or write on a PDF.
• In Word: insert the PNG as a picture, then set text wrapping to "in front of text" so you can place it on the line.
• Keep one good signature file and reuse it. There is no reason to go through the paper and camera stage twice.

If something goes wrong

• The signature is faint or broken up. The pen was too light or the room too dark. Marker pen, daylight.
• There is a grey haze around it. A shadow fell across the paper. Move so you are not standing between the window and the page.
• Parts are missing. Photograph closer so the signature fills more of the frame.