Systems and methods for preserving and maintaining document integrity
Systems and methods consistent with embodiments of the present invention provide for a method for preserving and maintaining document integrity. In some methods for preserving and maintaining document integrity, the contents of a document, or contents of a document layer may be encoded into a machine-readable form. In some embodiments, the encoded information may be represented using a 2-dimensional bar code. In some methods for preserving and maintaining document integrity, the machine-readable code is printed along with contents of the document based on space available in the document. In some embodiments, a printed document containing the machine-readable code may be scanned and digitized, and content extracted from the scanned data. In some embodiments, the machine-readable code printed on the document is used to recreate layer data from the printed document.
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
selecting document layer data for encoding, wherein the document layer data comprises document meta-data associated with an electronic document;
encoding the selected document layer data in a machine-readable format for at least one page of the electronic document;
determining the amount of space available on the at least one page to print the machine-readable encoding corresponding to layer data associated with the at least one page of the document; and
printing the contents of the at least one page of the document with its associated machine-readable encoding of document layer data, if space is available on the page to print the machine-readable encoding; and
printing the machine-readable encoding of document layer data separately, if space available on the page is not sufficient to print the machine-readable encoding.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the amount of space available on the at least one page to print the encoding includes determining the printable area available on the margins of the page.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein printing the machine-readable encoding separately, if space available on the page is not sufficient to print the machine-readable encoding further comprises:
printing a machine-readable marker on the page, to indicate that the machine-readable encoding is being printed separately; and
printing the machine-readable encoding in a separate section following printed pages containing document content.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein printing the machine-readable marker includes indicating the start of the section containing the printed encoding.
5. The method of claim 3 , wherein printing the machine-readable marker includes indexing the location of the actual machine-readable encoding for the page.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein printing the machine-readable encoding comprises printing a two dimensional bar code.