I'm in the early planning stages of an applicaiton that will capture a signature from an external Signature Pad device. This signature can be converted to common image files (jpeg, tiff, bmp). I will be storing the image to a SQL Server 2005 database and retrieving them at a later time for printing on badges and displaying on the screen.

I can't store the signature image on the file system for security reasons. It needs to be stored in the database.

Should I uses binary, varbinary or image datatype?

What do I need to do in my Entity class for the related property as far as any conversions for storing to the database or retrieving from the database?

Any pointers you can give will be appreciated.