PDF Security

Possible to disable "Save As" for PDF files?

[StayingAwake]

I need to find a way to allow the PDFs that I'm posting online to not be downloaded. I have the abitlity to restrict printing, manipulating, etc. (within pdf security), but is there a way to disable the "Save As" function for PDF files? I realize a similar question has been posted before for normal html content, and the answer is NO, but I'm not sure if it's possible for PDF files. I could swear that I've come across a file in the past that had this disabled. Any help is much appreciated.

[txbakers]

nope

and Welcome to the Webmaster World!

[edited by: txbakers at 1:35 am (utc) on Mar. 27, 2004]

[tedster]

Sightly longer answer: in order for someone to display a document on their monitor, BY DEFINITION they have already downloaded it.

[bird]

I have the abitlity to restrict printing, manipulating, etc.

You don't even have that.
The printing restriction is nothing more than a notice stored in the file that will cause Adobes viewer (and only that) to refuse printing. Any other software processing PDF files (eg. Ghostview) will print the same file without the slightest problems.

[DrDoc]

...or you can always use print screen, and then either save or print the screen shots.

[StayingAwake]

Thanks guys. Just as a side-note... The people viewing these files will be english teachers, not anyone with any real creative web skills. Just looking for a way to allow them to view content online, but not give them the (convenient) ability to just click "save as" from the file menu, and send them to all of their teacher friends. But it looks like I'm outta luck. I appreciate the help!

[g1smd]

No, the Adobe viewer stores the document as ACRxxXxx.TMP or PDFxxXxx.TMP in the users %windir%\TEMP directory as it is being viewed, and does not always automatically delete it afterwards either.

[bufferzone]

And software like the newer versions of Omnipage pro are able to electronically scan PDF documents and turn them in to Word documents, fully editable, printable and savable for that matter

[digitalv]

It sounds like you've disabled every good reason to even publish a PDF on the web in the first place ... so the question I have is why use PDF?

It would be fairly easy to write an ActiveX program that could run within a web page and display whatever you wanted it to - but it wouldn't be printable or saveable.

If you don't want the user to be able to download, print, or manipulate, then what's the advantage of PDF?

[StayingAwake]

Well, PDF wasn't the original choice. I have around 50-60 PDFs that were created in order to be easily printed in large quantities (manuals and such). They're each around 150-200 pages. Converting them all is a little daunting.

My members need to be able to view them online for resource capabilties. I was just trying to eliminate EASY downloading. I know that anything published online can be stolen if you try hard enough, but the people viewing these documents aren't going to try any harder than "save as".

Thanks again everyone!