TECHNIQUES AND SYSTEMS FOR STORING AND PROTECTING SIGNATURES AND IMAGES IN ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

• US 20180267946A1
• Filed: 03/15/2017
• Published: 09/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: DANG, Nikhil, MATHUR, Ankit, SARKAR, Abhijit
• Granted Patent: US 10,929,597 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/0021 Image watermarking

Abstract

Systems and techniques for storing an electronic document signed during an electronic document signing process. A computing device receives an electronic document that includes content within a content area, an image field positioned on the content area, and a cross sign field positioned partially on the image field and partially on the content area. The computing device receives an image to populate the image field and a signature to populate the cross sign field. The computing devices creates a first signature portion and a second signature portion by splitting the signature. The image is modified with the first signature portion and the content area is modified with the second signature portion. The computing device stores the electronic document by storing a file having separate elements, the separate elements including the modified content area and the modified image, without including the complete signature, unaltered content area, or unaltered image.

Claims

1. A method, performed by a computing device, for storing an electronic document signed during an electronic document signing process, the method comprising:

receiving an electronic document to be signed in the electronic document signing process, the electronic document comprising content within a content area, an image field positioned on the content area, and a cross sign field positioned partially on the image field and partially on a portion of the content area outside of the image field;

receiving an image to populate the image field and a signature to populate the cross sign field;

creating a first signature portion and a second signature portion by splitting the signature;

creating a modified image by modifying the image to include the first signature portion;

creating a modified content area by modifying the content area of the electronic document to include the second signature portion; and

storing the electronic document by storing a file comprising separate elements, the separate elements comprising the modified content area, the modified image, and searchable text elements of the electronic document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the signature is not separately stored in the file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the modified image comprises replacing pixel values to replace image content with the first signature portion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein splitting the signature comprises determining two or more signature portions based on intersection of a border of the image with the signature, wherein the two or more signature portions include the first signature portion and the second signature portion.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the electronic document comprises receiving a combined field in the content area, the combined field identifying positions for the image field and the cross sign field.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein receiving the combined field comprises receiving a selection of a predefined position or rotation for the cross sign field to be positioned relative to the image field in the combined field, wherein the predefined position is selected from a set of predefined positions relative to the image field.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the electronic document comprises:

displaying the content area of the electronic document in a user interface; and

receiving input identifying a position in the content area in the user interface for the image field.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the electronic document comprises:

displaying the image field on the content area in a user interface;

receiving input identifying a position on the content area in the user interface for the cross sign field; and

receiving input rotating, scaling, or resizing the cross sign field in the user interface.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the electronic document comprises receiving application programming interface calls to position the image field or position the cross sign field.

10. A system for cross signing on an image during an electronic document signing process, the system comprising:

an authoring means for authoring an electronic document with fields for cross signing, the electronic document to be signed by a signer in the electronic document signing process;

a receiving means for receiving an image and a signature; and

a storing means for storing the electronic document by modifying the electronic document and the image based on the signature.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the storing means is configured to:

create a first signature portion and a second signature portion by splitting the signature;

create a modified image by modifying the image to include the first signature portion;

create a modified content area by modifying content area of the electronic document to include the second signature portion; and

store the electronic document by storing a file comprising separate elements, the separate elements comprising the modified content area and the modified image.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the storing means is further configured to split the signature into the first signature portion and the second signature portion based on an intersection of a border of the image with the signature.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the authoring means is configured to position an image field and a cross sign field within a content area of the electronic document, wherein the cross sign field is positioned partially on the image field and partially on a portion of the content area outside of the image field.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the authoring means is configured to position a combined field that comprises the image field and the cross sign field.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the authoring means is configured to position the cross sign field in a predefined position relative to the image field in the combined field.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the authoring means is configured to independently position the image field and the cross sign field.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the authoring mean is configured to position the fields based on application programming interface calls.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising instructions for:

receiving an electronic document to be signed in the electronic document signing process, the electronic document comprising content within a content area;

receiving a signature and an image for inclusion in the electronic document;

creating a first signature portion and a second signature portion by splitting the signature;

creating a modified image by modifying the image to include the first signature portion;

creating a modified content area by modifying the content area of the electronic document to include the second signature portion; and

storing the electronic document by storing a file comprising separate elements, the separate elements comprising the modified content area and the modified image.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the separate elements further comprise searchable text and wherein the signature is not separately stored in the file.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein creating the modified image comprises replacing pixel values to replace image content with the first signature portion.