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Digital Signatures

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11 Sep 2008CPOL 82.7K   9.3K   46   16
Custom digital signatures using iTextSharp

itextsharp

Introduction

In this article, I will present a simple source code allowing you to digitally sign a PDF document and modify its meta data. I will use the excellent and free port of the iText library: iTextSharp, that can be downloaded here. You'll need Visual Studio 2008 to be able to open and build the project.

If you don’t know what digital signatures are or how they work, you can go here or here, or simply ask Google :).

iTextSharp provides a lot of interesting features to create and manipulate PDF documents, but in this article, we will only use the digital signature functions. I will also use some functions to manipulate PKCS#12 certificates. The only thing you need to know here is that our digital signature will use a private key extracted from a PKCS#12 certificate.

Background

I prefer e-signing of an iTextSharp document first, and then doing any change/modification as per requirements.

Using the code

C#
string signerName = 
       PdfPKCS7.GetSubjectFields(this.myCert.Chain[0]).GetField("CN");
PdfTemplate template = st.SignatureAppearance.GetLayer(2);
template.MoveTo(0, 200);
template.LineTo(500, 0);
template.Stroke();
template.BeginText();
BaseFont bf1 = BaseFont.CreateFont(BaseFont.HELVETICA, BaseFont.CP1252, 
                                   BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
template.SetFontAndSize(bf1, 10);
template.SetTextMatrix(1, 1);
template.ShowTextAligned(PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT, "" + 
                         signerName + "", 0, 40, 0);

BaseFont bf = BaseFont.CreateFont(BaseFont.HELVETICA, 
              BaseFont.CP1252, BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
template.SetFontAndSize(bf, 7);
template.SetTextMatrix(1, 1);
template.ShowTextAligned(PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT, "" + 
         System.DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss zzz") + "", 
         50, 30, 0);

template.SetFontAndSize(bf, 7);
template.SetTextMatrix(1, 1);
template.ShowTextAligned(PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT, "Signer:", 0, 25, 0);

template.SetFontAndSize(bf, 7);
template.SetTextMatrix(1, 1);
template.ShowTextAligned(PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT, "" + "CN=" + 
         PdfPKCS7.GetSubjectFields(myCert.Chain[0]).GetField("CN") + "", 
         10, 17, 0);



template.SetFontAndSize(bf, 7);
template.SetTextMatrix(1, 1);
template.ShowTextAligned(PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT, "" + "C=" + 
                         PdfPKCS7.GetSubjectFields(myCert.Chain[0]).GetField("C") + "", 
                         10, 10, 0);

template.EndText();

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior) Business Solution
India India
i m Software Developer

Comments and Discussions

 
QuestionRegarding Certificate File Pin
Kishor Khatri11-Jan-22 6:26
Kishor Khatri11-Jan-22 6:26 
QuestionHelp! Pin
Member 1227798820-Jan-16 23:27
Member 1227798820-Jan-16 23:27 
QuestionSet revision label and Add picture as signature Pin
Rui Frazao26-Feb-14 0:22
Rui Frazao26-Feb-14 0:22 
Generalhelp!!! Pin
ROHIT KUMAR GAUTAM12-Jul-11 23:38
ROHIT KUMAR GAUTAM12-Jul-11 23:38 
General.CER instead of .PFX certificates Pin
Miroslav Karaffa9-May-11 2:48
Miroslav Karaffa9-May-11 2:48 
GeneralADD IMAGE And languages Pin
shin99926-Dec-10 13:05
shin99926-Dec-10 13:05 
Questionwork with asp.net? Pin
davidberlin14-May-10 2:58
davidberlin14-May-10 2:58 
Questionit is not working Pin
Daulat Kadam2-Sep-09 1:59
Daulat Kadam2-Sep-09 1:59 
AnswerRe: it is not working Pin
nimeshmca15-Feb-10 2:29
nimeshmca15-Feb-10 2:29 
AnswerRe: it is not working Pin
nimeshmca15-Feb-10 2:29
nimeshmca15-Feb-10 2:29 
its working download again Laugh | :laugh:
QuestionHow will it works? Pin
Daulat Kadam2-Sep-09 1:18
Daulat Kadam2-Sep-09 1:18 
GeneralLocation of the signaure Pin
ju168181-Jul-09 16:41
ju168181-Jul-09 16:41 
GeneralRe: Location of the signaure Pin
nimeshmca15-Feb-10 2:30
nimeshmca15-Feb-10 2:30 
Generalgetting fields..... Pin
J .R. Martins4-May-09 5:21
J .R. Martins4-May-09 5:21 
Questionhow to sign with Datetime sign (TSA server) ? Pin
Rani10928-Oct-08 12:09
Rani10928-Oct-08 12:09 
AnswerRe: how to sign with Datetime sign (TSA server) ? Pin
nimeshmca16-Mar-09 22:09
nimeshmca16-Mar-09 22:09 

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