Protect PDF from printing

gachunt has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

... Concerns about PDF protection aside, that it's not very good, easily broken, etc ... I know it's not great, but I still have to do it.

I'm writing a script that watches a folder where documents are scanned into PDF format.

The script creates a thumbnail of the scanned PDF's first page using Imagemagick.

Next, it needs to protect the document from printing, but still allow opening WITHOUT being prompted for a password. That's where I'm stuck.

Using CAM::PDF, I have:

$pdf->setPrefs('password','password');

But, that is protecting the PDF from opening as well.

When I try to use only one argument (and variations of) such as:

$pdf->setPrefs('password');<BR>
$pdf->setPrefs('password','');<BR>
$pdf->setPrefs('','password');
[download]

Then the PDF still prompts for a password when opening, or opens with blank white pages and the scanned text is gone.

Any suggestions? or alternates to CAM::PDF?

Using ActiveState, Windows 2012 Server

Comment on Protect PDF from printing Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Protect PDF from printing by Anonymous Monk on Sep 26, 2015 at 00:28 UTC
http://search.cpan.org/tools/CAM-PDF -> http://search.cpan.org/grep?cpanid=CDOLAN&release=CAM-PDF-1.60&string=print&i=1&n=1&C=0 Read more... (2 kB) its `my @prefs = $doc->getPrefs();` so http://search.cpan.org/grep?cpanid=CDOLAN&release=CAM-PDF-1.60&string=prefs&i=1&n=1&C=0 `2944:=item $doc->setPrefs($ownerpass, $userpass, $print?, $modify?, $copy?, $add?)` So there you have it, use https://metacpan.org/pod/CAM::PDF#doc-setPrefs-ownerpass-userpass-print-modify-copy-add	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Protect PDF from printing by Anonymous Monk on Sep 26, 2015 at 00:31 UTC
$ rewritepdf --prefs 0 0 0 0 goner-labels01.pdf goner-labels01000.pdf $ pdfinfo goner-labels01.pdf goner-labels01000.pdf File: goner-labels01.pdf File Size: 2069 bytes Pages: 1 Author: PDF Labelmaker Producer: PDF::Create version 1.10 Title: My Labels Type: Info Page Size: variable Optimized: no PDF version: 1.2 Security Passwd: none Print: yes Modify: yes Copy: yes Add: yes --------------------------------- File: goner-labels01000.pdf File Size: 2325 bytes Pages: 1 Author: PDF Labelmaker Producer: PDF::Create version 1.10 Title: My Labels Type: Info Page Size: variable Optimized: no PDF version: 1.2 Security Passwd: none Print: no Modify: no Copy: no Add: no [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Protect PDF from printing by gachunt (Initiate) on Sep 26, 2015 at 23:21 UTC
No luck - Here's what happens This attempt protects from printing, but there's no password assigned, so printing can easily be turned on: `rewritepdf.pl --prefs 0 0 0 0 file.pdf file1.pdf` This attempt password protects printing -- but also requires a password to open the pdf: `rewritepdf.pl -p password password --prefs 0 0 0 0 file.pdf file1.pdf` This attempt password protects printing -- but the pdf only displays blank pages -- it erases the content: `rewritepdf.pl -p password --prefs 0 0 0 0 file.pdf file1.pdf` I've tried different PDF documents/pdf versions, but all documents end up blank	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Protect PDF from printing by gachunt (Initiate) on Sep 27, 2015 at 01:33 UTC
I went with using ghostscript instead For those who want to do something similar, execute this from your script: `"C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.16\bin\gswin64c" -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOwnerPassword=password -dPermissions=-64 -sOutputFile=\BICRwatch\protected.pdf \BICRwatch\file.pdf` Here's the command explained: `-dNOPAUSE` stops ghostscript from asking questions during the process `-dBATCH` quits ghostscript after protection is applied `dPermissions=-64` sets permissions to not allow any printing, editing, copying The rest should be self-explantory to edit.	[reply] [d/l] [select]