PDF files : printing protected !

Trent Lloyd lathiat at bur.st
Wed May 4 15:23:43 UTC 2005


What you could do, is get a copy of evince (apt-get install evince)
then print it, and print it to a new pdf, and send him that file. :)

Cheers,
Trent

On Wed, 2005-05-04 at 14:34 +0200, Vincent Trouilliez wrote:
> A friend downloaded a big 30MB PDF file (a workshop manual for his
> motorbike). The problem is that it is apparently PROTECTED ! Acrobat
> reader refuse to print it, it is explicitely print protected.
> I tried googling for a third-party PDF viewer, but even that, refuses to
> print. He uses a laptop with Windows XP.
> 
> However I tried in Ubuntu with Xpdf and it prints perfectly, it doesn't
> seem to care about the protections.
> 
> I remember someone on this list recently, who seemed very knowledgeable
> about the PDF and PS file format. How is this printing protection
> implemented ?
> Is just a couple bytes in the header of the file that could be
> overwritten with a HEX editor, provided we know the exact
> address/offset ?
> Or is there some PDF editor or utility I could use to remove this
> protection ?
> 
> I never knew PDF's had protection mechanisms ! :-/
> 
> 
> --
> Vince
> 
> 
-- 
Trent Lloyd <lathiat at bur.st>
Bur.st Networking Inc.





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