Electronic Signature is the digital data that is attached to an electronically transmitted document. It verifies the sender’s intention to sign the document.

As a developer, you can programmatically sign documents and also verify if the document is properly signed with the right signature. GroupDocs.Signature for .NET API provides many such features and gives you complete control over the electronic signing process. It provides different electronic signature implementations, like:

• Text Signatures (text, annotations, watermarks, stickers)
• Image Signature – with options like image effects and rotation.
• Digital Signature – based on digital certificates.
• Barcode Signature
• QR code Signature
• Stamp Signature
• Metadata Signature
• FormField Signature

This article shows how a C# developer may search electronic signatures of various types within any document that is supported by the GroupDocs.Signature API for .NET.

Search QR Code signatures in documents

Following is the simplest search method that shows how to search QR Code Signatures within a PDF document. You can use the same line of code to search in any of the supported file formats.

// Search QR Code Signatures in PDF document using C#
using (Signature signature = new Signature("signed.pdf"))
{
    // search for signatures in document
    List<QrCodeSignature> signatures = signature.Search<QrCodeSignature>(SignatureType.QrCode);
 
    Console.WriteLine($"\nSource document contains following signatures.");
    foreach (var qrCodeSignature in signatures)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"QRCode signature found at page {qrCodeSignature.PageNumber} with type {qrCodeSignature.EncodeType.TypeName} and text {qrCodeSignature.Text}");
    }
}

Search Barcode, QR code, and other signatures in documents

Whether it is a Barcode signature, QR Code signature, Text signature or even the hidden Metadata signature, it is quite simple to find any type of signature present in the document. Below code shows how the different signature types can be extracted from any document.

using (Signature signature = new Signature("signed.pdf"))
{
    // search for signatures in document
    SearchResult result = signature.Search(SignatureType.Text, SignatureType.Barcode, SignatureType.QrCode, SignatureType.Metadata);
    if (result.Signatures.Count > 0)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"\nSource document contains following signatures.");
        foreach (var resSignature in result.Signatures)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Signature found at page {resSignature.PageNumber} with type {resSignature.SignatureType} and Id#: {resSignature.SignatureId}");
        }
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("No signature was found.");
    }                
}

Search Image Signature in PDF documents and grab images content

The .NET Signature API not only allows getting all the signatures of various types, but it also grabs the image data content for presentations, spreadsheets, word processing and PDF documents using its API v20.2. Following is the source code showing how to grab the image content after the successful image signature search from a PDF document.

using (Signature signature = new Signature("signed.pdf"))
{
    // setup search options
    ImageSearchOptions searchOptions = new ImageSearchOptions()
    {
        // enable grabbing image content feature
        ReturnContent = true,
        // set minimum size if needed
        MinContentSize = 0,
        // set maximum size if needed
        MaxContentSize = 0,                    
        // specify exact image type to be returned
        ReturnContentType = FileType.JPEG,                                   
    };
    // search document
    List<ImageSignature> signatures = signature.Search<ImageSignature>(searchOptions);
    Console.WriteLine($"\nSource document contains following image signature(s).");
    // output signatures
    foreach (ImageSignature imageSignature in signatures)
    {
        Console.Write($"Found Image signature at page {imageSignature.PageNumber} and size {imageSignature.Size}.");
        Console.WriteLine($"Location at {imageSignature.Left}-{imageSignature.Top}. Size is {imageSignature.Width}x{imageSignature.Height}.");
    }
    //Save signature images
    string outputPath = "Output";
    if (!Directory.Exists(outputPath))
    {
        Directory.CreateDirectory(outputPath);
    }
    foreach (ImageSignature imageSignature in signatures)
    {
        Console.Write($"Found Image signature at page {imageSignature.PageNumber} and size {imageSignature.Size}.");
        Console.WriteLine($"Location at {imageSignature.Left}-{imageSignature.Top}. Size is {imageSignature.Width}x{imageSignature.Height}.");
        string outputFilePath = System.IO.Path.Combine(outputPath, $"image{i}{imageSignature.Format.Extension}");
        using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(outputFilePath, FileMode.Create))
        {
            fs.Write(imageSignature.Content, 0, imageSignature.Content.Length);
        }
    }
}

Key Resources for GroupDocs.Signature for .NET

Explore more about the GroupDocs.Signaure for .NET API. You can freely contact support if you need any help:

• Documentation
• Source Code Examples – GitHub
• Forum

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