Restrict PDF Access, Use, & Printing

PDF Restrictions

The original PDF restriction controls (provided to restrict pdf use) were designed before many of the packages we use today were in their infancy, and many did not exist at all.  And that is why the ability to restrict pdf use has become more sophisticated over time.

Domestic printing systems were often a dot matrix printer (remember those?) where high quality was not an option, nor was colour or graphics.  The focus was not on how to restrict pdf but getting it to work with all the emerging printing technologies.  And laser printers were expensive in every sense for many years.

But all that has changed.  Today making a high quality printed copy of a document is trivial, and every PC has a key on it so you can get screen copies at the touch of a button.

So the ability to restrict pdf has become increasingly important over time.

When we talk about the ability to restrict pdf, what are we actually talking about?

The first level to restrict pdf must be to prevent people from making copies which they can then distribute. Not every document in an organization is intended to be available for public distribution, and some are for very limited use.

The next level to restrict pdf is to control the ability to make printed copies (which could be scanned or photocopied).  Sometimes printing has to be allowed for operational reasons, but then you may need to add watermarks to the print-out, either to make it difficult to scan or photocopy successfully, or to associate the name of the authorized user so that it is clear where the copy came from.  

At a further level to restrict pdf you might add watermarks to the visible screen to resist the ability of someone taking photographs of the screen images (perhaps with their mobile phone) and later copying them into a computer and processing them later.  A photo of this page is available so you can see for yourself what can be achieved.

Adobe Acrobat and similar PDF Writer applications enable you to restrict pdf use by applying controls after you have converted your documents to pdf format.  Adobe Acrobat Writer can also be used to restrict pdf access, preventing only authorized individuals opening password protected pdf documents. However, these pdf restriction controls can be simply removed using freely available pdf password removal programs.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why you would need to restrict pdf access and use, but you need to make sure you use a security program that enforces those controls.

Download PDF restriction software to restrict PDFs