About GDTI

The Global Document Type Identifier (GDTI) is used to identify important documents of a company or organization. It may be used to identify legal documents, insurance policies, land titles, graduation certificates, proof of payments, proof of ownerships etc. Any documents that confers a right or entitlement, or specifies an obligation may be assigned a GDTI to make it more traceable and trackable.

A GDTI key may or may not include a serial number component. A key without a serial number component identifies a document type or class. A key with a serial number can be used to uniquely identify a particular document.

A GDTI is made up of the GS1 Company Prefix, which uniquely identifies the organization that the document originates. It may be encoded in a GS1 128 barcode, with the prefix 253, printed on the document, or stored in a EPC-enabled RFID tag. This allows the original document to be identified and located through the GDTI number.

The GDTI is comprised of the following components

• The Application Identifier - 253
• The GS1 Company Prefix - this number is unique to each company
• The Document Type - that is assigned by the holder of the GS1 Prefix, used to identify the type or class of document
• A Check Digit ensures the barcode scanner or rfid reader to ensure
• Serial Number (Optional) - if present, will identify the actual document rather than the document class

Example of GDTI

A GDTI is about 17 to 33 digits in length, with 253 at the beginning and has the form

253XXXXXXXXXXXX[CheckDigit]XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Possible use of a GDTI

You can check whether a document (e.g a certificate) is authentic, and originates genuinely from a reputable institution by using the GDTI number to retrieve the orginal record of the document. As the GDTI is unique, no two documents in the world will have the same GDTI. Thus, it may even be possible for users to check for documents through a centralized database for any documents that are assigned a GDTI.