User profile for user: Adam Mercado
Adam Mercado Author
User level: Level 1
40 points

Setting up PDF encryption for copy-protection

Hi all


I'm trying to set up PDFs I export to have copy protection. To clarify, that means a user can freely open and print my PDFs but cannot copy data from them.


In the past I used Adobe Illustrator to achieve this. I recently switched to Affinity Designer though. The process in both apps was similar.


I recently discovered that PDFs I open in Preview are not in fact copy protected. The info panel shows encryption is present, but viewing, printing AND copying are allowed. I was able to copy protect my files by requiring a password to open them. This is sub-optimal however. I dont want to require my clients to use a password for every document I send them.


Is this a shortcoming in Preview or Catalina implementation of PDF? Is there a better tool for reliably copy protecting my PDFs? I could swear that encryption worked in Mojave and earlier, did something change. Does it work in later OS?

Mac Pro, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 17, 2024 11:22 AM

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User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
User level: Level 10
123,290 points

Posted on Dec 17, 2024 12:15 PM

Affinity Designer 2 2.5.7 lacks the detail on export to control user access restrictions on the PDF. You can block Copying and allow Printing, but that is about it. So, the PDF must be post-processed in Apple's Preview with the Inspector's permissions panel:


and after selecting Apply, Saving, and exiting the PDF, those fields will remain inaccessible upon the next opening of the PDF. If you check the Preview Inspector even after saving the PDF, but not exiting Preview, the PDF Inspector will show all fields checked as green and accessible.


Here is what is shown by the inspector upon reopening that PDF:



The Preview Inspector does not provide the ability to prevent Text Extraction for Accessibility and neither does Adobe Acrobat Reader as one would need a true PDF editor to override that remaining Text Extraction property.

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User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
User level: Level 10
123,290 points

Dec 17, 2024 12:15 PM in response to Adam Mercado

Affinity Designer 2 2.5.7 lacks the detail on export to control user access restrictions on the PDF. You can block Copying and allow Printing, but that is about it. So, the PDF must be post-processed in Apple's Preview with the Inspector's permissions panel:


and after selecting Apply, Saving, and exiting the PDF, those fields will remain inaccessible upon the next opening of the PDF. If you check the Preview Inspector even after saving the PDF, but not exiting Preview, the PDF Inspector will show all fields checked as green and accessible.


Here is what is shown by the inspector upon reopening that PDF:



The Preview Inspector does not provide the ability to prevent Text Extraction for Accessibility and neither does Adobe Acrobat Reader as one would need a true PDF editor to override that remaining Text Extraction property.

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User profile for user: Adam Mercado
Adam Mercado Author
User level: Level 1
40 points

Dec 23, 2024 6:16 PM in response to VikingOSX

Well to follow up and clarify. It IS definitely a problem with Preview (v11) on Catalina. I booted into an El Capitan volume and sure enough all the PDFs I created with Illustrator recognize the correct security options in the PDF. For whatever reason Preview 11 just ignores them. Sounds like it was fixed in later versions.


So, not a problem with the export from Affinity, but a read issue with Preview.


Strange thing for them to break in a mature app like Preview.

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User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
User level: Level 10
123,290 points

Dec 24, 2024 5:00 AM in response to Adam Mercado

Adam Mercado wrote:

Well to follow up and clarify. It IS definitely a problem with Preview (v11) on Catalina. I booted into an El Capitan volume and sure enough all the PDFs I created with Illustrator recognize the correct security options in the PDF. For whatever reason Preview 11 just ignores them. Sounds like it was fixed in later versions.

So, not a problem with the export from Affinity, but a read issue with Preview.

Strange thing for them to break in a mature app like Preview.

Apple is not immune from introducing bugs and removing functionality from its applications. Preview is no exception.



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User profile for user: Adam Mercado
Adam Mercado Author
User level: Level 1
40 points

Dec 19, 2024 2:32 PM in response to VikingOSX

Hey Viking thanks for that. Thats really cool. It must be a more recent version of Preview than ships with Catalina as I dont see that option in my Preview (v11)


All I get on Export is a single password option. And when I open that file it is password-locked to open (see images)


But your feedback confirms to me that the PDF platform CAN do what I need, its just Affinity not implementing it.


Thanks

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Setting up PDF encryption for copy-protection

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