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I am working with Websupergoo's AbcPdf generator to generate the pdf from my code in c sharp. I want it to be readonly and non-editable to the end user. I have tried its encryption properties :-

pdfDoc.Encryption.CanChange  
pdfDoc.Encryption.CanEdit  
pdfDoc.Encryption.CanAssemble  
pdfDoc.Encryption.CanExtract  
pdfDoc.Encryption.CanFillForms

Where pdfDoc is my pdf object.

These solved multiple purposes like avoiding the editing, deleting, adding new pages, signing, highlighting, add sticky notes, export to other formats etc. The above properties worked but one problem arised which made all these changes null and void.

There is a tool in Acrobat 11 pro 'Protection' under which user can remove all the securities of imposed to the pdf by code.

I dont know what to do, also i dont want any password protection, just make it readonly forever. Please help..!

King
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1 Answers1

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What your application does is setting the options you see in the Security tab of the Document Properties dialog in Acrobat XI. In order to prevent changing them just so, you will have to specify your Owner password. I don't know whether there is an option to set that password in your application (if not, providing encryption is kind of moot, and must be considered a serious bug in that application).

This is how that mechanism works.

The question is, however, how much protection you want, and how much it is worth to you, considering that every protection can be cracked (with more or less ease).

On the high end you have DRM systems where you can control the access to your file and also its capabilities. They are not cheap at all, but you may find a service provider.

On the low end, if you have a good understanding of PDF, you can fool around a bit with fonts and font encoding, so that any attempt to noodle around in the document will cause problems.

Max Wyss
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