Are electronically signed documents accepted?

Short answer: For everyday paperwork — leases, school forms, waivers, NDAs — a signed PDF is widely accepted. For high-stakes legal documents, check what your jurisdiction or counterparty requires.

For most everyday paperwork: yes, in practice. A signed PDF is the normal way leases, school forms, waivers, freelance contracts, NDAs and permission slips get returned in 2026 — the person on the other end usually just needs your signature on the line, and nobody expects wet ink and a rubber stamp.

The honest, more complete answer has three layers:

Everyday documents — the counterparty decides. If your landlord emailed you the lease as a PDF, they're expecting a PDF back. This is Signed's home turf.
Legal frameworks — many jurisdictions have laws (like the US ESIGN Act or eIDAS in the EU) under which electronic signatures can carry legal weight. The specifics vary by country, by document type, and by how the signature was made and recorded.
The exceptions — some documents commonly require notarization, witnesses, or specific formats: wills, some property deeds, certain court filings. For anything high-stakes, check what your jurisdiction and counterparty require, or use a certified e-signature service with an audit trail.

Signed is a signing tool, not legal advice — it puts a clean, real-looking signature exactly where it belongs on the PDF. Whether that satisfies a specific legal requirement is a question for a lawyer, and any marketing page that promises otherwise is overreaching.