What is the best way to sign a cover letter?

Use a simple professional sign-off, "Sincerely" or "Best regards", followed by your full name on the next line. That pairing is correct in nearly every context, from emailed applications to formal PDFs. Keep it plain: the sign-off should not draw attention to itself.

Do I need a handwritten or digital signature on a cover letter?

Almost never. For emailed cover letters and online application forms, your typed name is the signature and a graphic adds nothing. Only add a scanned or digital signature when you are sending a formal printed-then-scanned PDF, and even then it is optional. Recruiters do not expect or check for one.

How do you sign a cover letter that is sent as an email?

Close with your sign-off and full name, then add your phone number and a professional email under it as a short contact block. Do not attach a separate cover letter file if the body of the email already is the cover letter. The email body and the closing block do all the work.

Should I use "Sincerely" or "Best regards"?

Either is correct. "Sincerely" reads slightly more formal and traditional; "Best regards" reads a touch warmer and is common in tech and startups. Pick one, make sure it is spelled and capitalized correctly, and move on. The sign-off is not where applications are won or lost.

What should you avoid when signing a cover letter?

Avoid overly casual sign-offs (Cheers, Later, Thanks!), anything emotional or pleading (Hopefully, Eagerly awaiting your reply), and religious closings (Blessings) unless you know the culture. Also skip decorative fonts, color, and clip-art signatures. When in doubt, "Sincerely" plus your name is never wrong.

How to Sign a Cover Letter (Examples and Sign-Offs)

The closing of a cover letter is the part people overthink the most and the part that matters least to whether you get the interview. There is a small set of correct ways to sign off, a slightly larger set to avoid, and a few format details that change depending on whether you are sending an email, a PDF, or pasting into an application form. Here is all of it, with examples you can copy.

The closing line vs the sign-off: two different things

People use "closing" loosely, but a cover letter actually has two distinct closing parts, and they do different jobs.

The closing line is the last sentence (or two) of your final paragraph. It restates your interest and points to a next step: "I would welcome the chance to discuss how my experience fits the role." This is content.
The sign-off is the short valediction that comes after the body, on its own line, right before your name: "Sincerely," or "Best regards,". This is formatting.

Keep them separate. A strong closing line carries real weight (it is your last chance to sound interested and specific). The sign-off is a formality: get it right and unremarkable, then stop thinking about it.

The best professional sign-offs

Any of these are safe in essentially every job-application context:

Sincerely - the default. Formal, classic, never wrong.
Best regards - a touch warmer, very common in tech and startups.
Kind regards - common outside the US, slightly more formal than "Best regards".
Regards - clean and neutral, fine for almost anything.
Respectfully - good for very formal sectors (government, law, academia).

Sign-offs to avoid

Too casual: Cheers, Later, Talk soon, Ciao. Fine for a colleague, wrong for a stranger deciding whether to interview you.
Too needy: Hopefully, Eagerly awaiting your response, Fingers crossed. These read as anxious, not enthusiastic.
Just "Thanks" or "Thanks!": reserve gratitude for when you are actually thanking someone (after an interview). On a first cover letter it is slightly off.
Religious or personal: Blessings, Yours in service, Warmly. Skip unless you genuinely know the culture welcomes it.
Nothing at all: dropping your name with no sign-off looks unfinished. Always include one.

The full closing block format

A complete closing block is three parts: the sign-off, your full name, and a short contact line. The order is always sign-off first, name second, contact details last. Here is the bare-minimum version:

Sincerely,

Jordan Patel

That is genuinely enough when your contact details already appear in a header or in the email itself. When they do not (most emailed applications), add a compact contact block so a recruiter can reach you without hunting:

Best regards,

Jordan Patel
jordan.patel@email.com
(555) 123-4567
linkedin.com/in/jordanpatel

Keep the contact block to the essentials: name, phone, professional email, and optionally one link (LinkedIn or a portfolio). You do not need your full mailing address on a modern cover letter, and a wall of links looks cluttered.

Signing an emailed cover letter

When the cover letter is the body of an email (very common now), there is no separate document to sign. The email body is the letter, so your closing block goes at the bottom of the message:

... I would welcome the chance to talk about how I can help your team.

Best regards,

Jordan Patel
jordan.patel@email.com
(555) 123-4567

A few rules for the email version: do not paste a graphic signature, do not duplicate the cover letter as both the email body and an attachment, and make the email subject clear (for example, "Application: Senior Backend Engineer - Jordan Patel"). Your typed name is the signature here. Nothing else is needed.

Signing a printed or PDF cover letter

For a formal PDF (one you attach rather than paste), the same closing block applies, but you have the option of a visible signature between the sign-off and your typed name:

Sincerely,

[signature image, optional]

Jordan Patel

If you want that touch, scan a real signature or use your PDF tool to insert one, place it on its own line, and keep your typed name underneath so it is always legible. This is a nice-to-have for traditional industries, not a requirement. A clean typed name reads as perfectly professional, and most hiring teams never look for a graphic at all.

Signing inside an application form

Many applications drop your cover letter into a plain text box on a careers page rather than accepting a file. In that case, strip the formatting down: there are no fonts, no images, and often no reliable line breaks. End with a simple typed sign-off and name, and put contact details only if there is no separate field for them (there usually is):

Thank you for considering my application.

Sincerely,
Jordan Patel

Do not try to recreate a fancy signature block inside a text box. It will not render the way you expect, and the form already collects your name, email, and phone in their own fields.

The closing is the easy part. The form is the slog.

Here is the honest truth: signing a cover letter takes ten seconds once you know the rules above. The part that actually eats your evening is everything around it, retyping your name, email, phone, work history, and education into yet another Workday or Greenhouse form, then rewriting the same "Why this role?" answer for the fortieth time.

That is the problem Lentra solves. It is a free Chrome extension that fills an online job application in about 20 seconds: standard fields, work history, education, EEO self-ID, and screener questions, across Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, iCIMS, Workable, SmartRecruiters, Jobvite, and the long tail of company career pages. It even drafts the free-text questions from your real resume, and you review every answer before you submit on the company's real page. You write the cover letter once; Lentra handles the repetitive form underneath it.

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