And browser environments are possibly the least secure of all because if no software is installed on a device then you have no control over the actual environment so stopping screen grabbing and printing to file drivers is not possible. See Secure Downloads for additional information on stopping downloads and copying. To stop the browser caching the PDF on the users system, they convert your PDF files to images when you upload them — so the document is no longer a PDF file but consists of just raster images.
However, this provides a poor user experience since images are slow to display and print, and features such as search, bookmarks, and annotations are unlikely to be available. However, if you encrypt a PDF file and the user does not have the decryption key to use it then it does not matter if they can download it. And if you apply DRM and licensing controls then authorized users those given access will be restricted as to what they can do with downloadable PDF files for example not being able to share them with others.
Many cloud based systems claim to stop PDF forwarding — however users can share their login credentials with others so they have access to your documents anyway. If a system uses document links then there is nothing stopping an authorized user emailing those links to other users along with the login information.
Some systems state that they lock PDF files to email addresses or domains but that just means that you have to login using that email address or any email address that belongs to the domain. It does not stop PDF forwarding since authorized users can still give their login credentials to others.
That is also true of 2FA codes which provide little extra protection. A Safeguard protected PDF file can be forwarded and emailed to another user but the recipient will NOT be able to view it unless the document owner has authorized them to use it.
If you are the document publisher, you can email protected PDF files to users knowing that if they fall into the wrong hands they cannot be opened. So if a protected PDF is accidentally forwarded to the wrong person they will not be able to use it. See also stop copying, downloading and emailing. This is because there are numerous free and paid for PDF password remover programs on the Internet that will remove Adobe Acrobat permissions passwords in seconds.
Users can still add comments to PDF files if you allow this option , but PDF content is always protected from editing ensuring that your original content cannot be altered in any way.
In some PDF protection products, if editing is disabled you can still highlight and copy text. Safeguard stops users from copying text and other content within a document — there is no copy paste option available and text cannot be highlighted for selection so it cannot be copied and pasted into other applications. Unfortunately there are many free screen grabbing or screen capture applications available that users can download to easily bypass this restriction. Safeguard stops screenshots being taken by common third party software applications.
It uses many different methods including a screen mask that is overlaid over the protected PDF document if the mouse cursor is moved to another active application. No PDF DRM product however can stop all screenshots users can just take photographs of the screen so it is recommended that document publishers apply dynamic watermarks as a copying deterrent.
Safeguard enables document publishers to expire PDF files so they can no longer be used after a certain amount of time. The following options are available:.
You might for example want a user to be able to use your documents for a 15 day trial period but those documents will expire on a fixed date regardless if the trial period is used or not. Being able to revoke PDF files is an important part of any document security solution. There may be times when the wrong document was published, a user has left your company, or you think a specific document has been compromised. Safeguard enables you to revoke PDF files instantly the document must be set to check with the administration system each time it is opened , or you can revoke users so all documents they have access to become inaccessible.
If you have created PDF files that only check with the administration system every n days then PDF revocation will only take place once a check has occurred. With Safeguard, PDF files can be revoked no matter where they are located. You can also revoke access to multiple PDF files instantly and group documents into publications to make revocation easier for common groups of documents.
No DRM system is fool-proof. Even if screenshots are prevented, users can take photographs of the screen using a camera. Similarly, if printing is allowed, users can print and scan back in printed documents.
You can use different watermarks for viewed and printed documents and both text and image watermarks are supported. PDF watermarks can be displayed behind content so they are less obtrusive to the user and you can choose not to display watermarks on the first page of a document if you have a cover image that you want to leave unmarked. See How to remove a watermark from a PDF. This is done at the user level or a global level for all users. In this way you can easily restrict all users to viewing protected PDF files from say your office location in the US.
This is particularly useful if users have laptops which they are allowed to take home — locked PDF files can then only be viewed at the office and not when the user is at home or at other locations where they could be shown to others. This is useful if you want to check whether a particular user has viewed a document yet especially if they claim to have not received it.
If I find it, and it works, I'm buying it. I wish I had skills as a programmer because I have some pretty good ideas of ways to implement such a product, unfortunately, I do not know how to put these ideas into practical use. You could also control printing from javascript on the client side.
Although we should agree that ultimately you cannot prevent some form of document capture specially through screen capture technology either through phone or computer , the goal is to prevent direct download of original document. Some suggest you turn it into images, but this is not necessary.
There is clearly a way, as several cloud services allow you to share pdf files, removing the download option, without converting the PDF to images a superior method because it retains important properties like word search. Personally, as a user of Outlook email, I use the cloud service it provides, OneDrive. I am no expert on HTMl so cannot tell you exactly how it is done, but it might still provide you some insights. Here is the code for one particular PDF I shared without private information and other bits that seemed unnecessary to me :.
I suggest to modify pdf. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Collectives on Stack Overflow.
Learn more. Asked 10 years, 9 months ago. Active 1 year, 2 months ago. Viewed k times. I am thinking about converting those PDF files to Flash. Any other ideas? Improve this question. JJJ 32k 20 20 gold badges 86 86 silver badges 99 99 bronze badges. Costa Costa 3, 11 11 gold badges 43 43 silver badges 77 77 bronze badges.
You do know that anything you display to the user can be printed in some fashion or another If you serve it, they can find some way to use it. You can't stop a user from printing the screen. If you have information you want to display and you don't want it being printed physically, PDF isn't exactly the format of choice. It's whole purpose is to be lovingly printed.
In my business, the need for the PDF to not be downloaded is due to not wanting customers to be able to easily share downloaded materials with other people. I make worksheets, and if they are easy to share, the customer is more likely to email them to a friend.
If sharing them is made more complicated, they are less likely to want to go to the trouble. Not being able to download them without having advanced computer knowledge is good enough for me. Hope this sheds light on a need in the industry. Things like being able to get a screen shot, etc. Hope this helps. I i — Janet Giel-Romo. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Legionar 7, 2 2 gold badges 36 36 silver badges 66 66 bronze badges.
Browsers' developer tools make it trivial to get at anything sent to the user, and you're not going to stop screen capture programs. Heck, the user could use their mobile phone to take pictures of the computer screen… — Donal Fellows.
Right-click, view page source, get link of image under the transparent image. It's been in Firefox for as long as I can remember. Rating: 0 from 0 votes. Previous Post PDF contains a lot of white text, how to make it black by command line tool?
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