eSign document with Barcode signature

What is a Barcode?

barcode or bar code is a way of presenting data in a visual, machine-readable form. Generally speaking, barcode is an image of a rectangular form that consists of parallel black lines and white spaces of different widths.
Barcodes are used in various areas where quick identification is necessary - as part of the purchase process in retail stores, in warehouses to track inventory, and on invoices to assist in accounting, among many other uses.

Barcode

Barcodes allow storing of product-related data like manufacturing and expiry dates, manufacturer name, country of origin, and product price. There are plenty of barcode types nowadays because different companies use different combinations of numbers and bars in their barcodes depending on their needs. From the document signature perspective, Barcode may contain different characters (letters, digits, or symbols) and may have various lengths and sizes depending on the type and settings to keep signature information, title, subject, or short encrypted data.

How to eSign document with Barcode signature

GroupDocs.Signature supports a wide range of Barcode types that can be used to create electronic signatures within the documents. Please refer to the BarcodeTypes description to get the full list of supported barcodes.
To specify different options for Barcode signature GroupDocs.Signature for .NET provides BarcodeSignOptions class. The main fields are:

  • EncodeType - specifies the Barcode type (AustralianPost, Codabar, EAN13, OPC, etc.);
  • Text - specifies the Barcode text.

Here are the steps to eSign a document with the Barcode signature using GroupDocs.Signature for .NET API:

  • Create a new instance of Signature class and pass the source document path as a constructor parameter.
  • Instantiate the BarcodeSignOptions object according to your requirements and specify the Barcode type by setting the EncodeType property with one of the predefined supported types. Set the Text property value.
  • Call the Sign method of the Signature class instance and pass the BarcodeSignOptions to it.

This example shows how to sign a PDF document with a Barcode signature.

using (Signature signature = new Signature("sample.pdf"))
{
    BarcodeSignOptions options = new BarcodeSignOptions("JohnSmith")
    {
        // setup Barcode encoding type
        EncodeType = BarcodeTypes.Code128,
        // set signature position
        Left = 100,
        Top = 100
    };
    signature.Sign("SampleSigned.pdf", options);
}

Advanced Usage Topics

To learn more about document eSign features, please refer to the advanced usage section.

More resources

GitHub Examples

You may easily run the code above and see the feature in action in our GitHub examples:

Free Online Apps

Along with the full-featured .NET library, we provide simple but powerful free online apps.

To generate barcodes and/or sign your files with barcodes for free, you can use the Barcode Generator online app.

To sign PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other documents you can use the other online apps from the GroupDocs.Signature App Product Family.