[Hidden-tech] Non-printable PDF

[Robert Heller]

At Fri, 11 May 2012 15:30:09 -0400 Fred Levine <fred at smallbatchbooks.com> wrote:

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> Does anyone know if there¹s a way to create a non-printable PDF file? I¹ve
> never heard of it, but I have a client who says he has and wants one.
> 
> Thanks for any and all suggestions.

I believe Adobe Acrobat can create such a thing (it is a DRM thingy in
the PDF somewhere) and Adobe Reader will 'honor' it. All of the Open
Source PDF readers I know of (Ghostview, XPDF, evince) don't honor it
(just like Linux / OSS DVD player software don't enforce the DVD region
coding).  I take it your client wants to distribute a document that can
be viewed, but not printed, with the idea that people can 'view the
document on-line' but not print *copies*. This is not strictly
enforceable. If someone wants a hard copy of the document, they can get
one. 

If the idea is to force people to *buy* a dead-tree version after
reading a free/cheap electronic version, it really does not work that
way. There is tons of evidence that making *free* and unencumbered
electronically downloaded versions of books, actually increases dead-tree
book sales, *without* any sort of coercive measures.  The coercive
measures don't increase book sales, if anything they reduce sales.  I
know, that sounds insane, but it is true.  It is called sales by
word-of-mouth advertising. 

> 
> Fred 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933 / heller at deepsoft.com
Deepwoods Software        -- http://www.deepsoft.com/
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