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Auto-Sizing Signatures to Fit a Signature Area
There are many cases where you must work with existing forms or documents which were designed for paper presentation. The signature locations as well as related data (printed name, title, organization, etc.) may be in confined spaces and you do not want signature images, signature text, or other signature block data to overprint any adjacent information. The solution is AutoFit.
Data Block Elements
AutoFit is a property that allows you to automatically fit any AlphaTrust® e-Sign signature data block element into a defined rectangular space. AlphaTrust® e-Sign signature block elements include:
- The signature (image or font signature)
- Email address
- Title
- Organization
- and then three additional fields that may be used for any of the following:
- Printed name
- Date
- IP address
- the AlphaTrust® e-Sign DocumentID
- the AlphaTrust® e-Sign TaskID
- or even just arbitrary text that you define.
Any or all of these data elements may be auto-sized to fit a confined space in your PDF document.
When you request AutoFit for a data element, you specify the following values:
Properties
| Property | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| AutoFit | Turns the auto-sizing functionality on or off. | bool |
| FontSizeMinimum | The minimum font size that the text may be reduced to (for printed text data, not images) when auto-fitting the text to the specified size constraints. | integer |
| MaxWidth | Set the maximum width the the signature or the additional signature block data can be. This value may be inherited from the width of the PDF field defined as the location for the data element by leaving this field null when using a PDF Form Field as the method of placement. | short |
| MaxHeight | Set the maximum height the the signature or the additional signature block data can be. This value may be inherited from the height of the PDF field defined as the location for the data element by leaving this field null when using a PDF Form Field as the method of placement. | short |
| FontName | This is the font to use for printed data. Only these three fonts are supported; Courier, Helvetica, or Times. These choices are to allow a mono-spaced font, a sans-serif font, and a serif font option. Helvetica is defaulted if not defined. NOTE: applies to additional signature block data only - not signatures | FontNames |
| FontColor | This is the font color to use for printed data. Only these three colors are supported; blue, black or red. Blue is defaulted if not defined. NOTE: applies to additional signature block data only - not signatures | SignatureBlockColor |
If you specify a PDF field name as the location reference and you do not supply a value or supply a 0 value for MaxWidth or MaxHeight then the width and/or height will be taken from the width and/or height of the PDF field specified. In this way you can use the PDF field dimensions to define the auto fit bounding box.
If you do not specifically set the AutoFit flag for a data element, but you do specify a value for MaxWidth and MaxHeight, then AutoFit will be turned on. You must always specifically set the AutoFit Flag when you want to inherit the width and height from a PDF form field.
Rules
The rules for AutoFit processing by AlphaTrust® e-Sign are as follows:
- Print the data on one line at the normal, or requested, font size.
- If that will not "fit" then test to see if the data will fit on one line at a reduced font size, and also if it will fit on two lines at a reduced font size, however the font size will not be reduced below the size specified for
FontSizeMinimum. - When auto-fitting lines will be broken only at whole words boundaries.
- If the data can fit using both one line (reduced font size) and using two lines (at regular or reduced font size), then use the option that prints at the largest font size.
- If the data cannot fit at the minimum font size, then the data will be printed on two lines at the minimum font size and will extend to the right of the bounding box.
For images (i.e. signature images from Registered user's profiles, or Mouse-Drawn signatures) the image will be resized to fit in the bounding box. The aspect ratio of the image will be maintained.