METHOD FOR PROCESSING AND VERIFYING A DOCUMENT

Embodiments of the present invention provide a computer-implemented method of creating a digest of a document. The document to be processed and analysed may be a physical document, or it may already be in a digital form. In the case of starting from a physical document, the document is first scanned, so as to obtain an image of the document. The digital document is then processed using an algorithm or function to obtain one or more datasets comprising a plurality of position independent values. Each of the datasets may correspond to a different line of text or field of text within the document. The one or more datasets are then encoded, the encoded data being used to generate a digest associated with the document, and wherein the digest comprises a plurality of short hashes corresponding to each dataset. The generated digest can then be used to print a digital signature on the document, which can be used to later verify the authenticity of the document or a copy thereof.