A web-browser/web server method of signing documents, in particular faxes and email attachments. Documents are sent to the web server, often by analog or electronic fax reception, email attachment, or upload. At the web server, the images of the documents are converted to an image layer, and are signed, manipulated, and otherwise altered by combining the image layer with annotation layers constructed from instructions and data that are uploaded by the user from a web browser running on a remote computerized device. The system and method manipulates the documents using HTML5 based image manipulation features such as the <canvas> element. Using this method, users may view, sign, annotate, and otherwise manipulate documents from their web browsers as if the documents were residing on their local machine. Users may then instruct the remote server to transmit to the intended destination by analog or electronic fax, email attachment, download, or other means.