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T
tapeck
Participant
March 30, 2011
Question

Will .pdfs ever limit printing to physical printers as an option?

  • March 30, 2011
  • 2 replies
  • 1811 views

It would be great if .pdf creation had the option to prevent printing to virtual devices. Then I could allow customers of my eBook to print out. As it is now, allowing printing to a virtual device means losing the book entirely. Any security you add is lost.

Will Adobe ever give this option in Acrobat? To only print to a physical printer?

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    2 replies

    Bernd Alheit
    Community Expert
    Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 1, 2011
    Will Adobe ever give this option in Acrobat? To only print to a physical printer?

    This is impossible.

    T
    tapeckAuthor
    Participant
    April 1, 2011

    Why do you say this? Do you mean technically impossible? If so, how does drumlin security achieve this from within from its .pdf reader?

    http://www.drumlinsecurity.com/

    Ebrary library service also detects virtual printers. It is certainly technically feasible. How, I have no idea. Preventing screengrabbing is possible too.

    I don't see why Adobe could not do similarly. Obviously, I am not suggesting that virtual printing is a bad thing; I would just like to see the option in Acrobat.

    Bernd Alheit
    Community Expert
    Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 3, 2011
    Why do you say this? Do you mean technically impossible? If so, how does drumlin security achieve this from within from its .pdf reader?

    Where did you read this?

    MichaelKazlow
    MichaelKazlow
    Legend
    March 30, 2011

    We cannot speculate on Acrobat's future. This is the feature/wish list report form:

    https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

    I'll just add you assume that a program is capable of determining from the OS the difference between a virtual printer and a physical printer. When properly written an application shouldn't be able to tell UNLESS it is a feature of the OS and I bet that at the present time it is not a feature on the Mac, Windows nor many other OSs.

    T
    tapeckAuthor
    Participant
    March 30, 2011

    Thanks Michael. I had just used that form requesting the feature before posting the question.

    All I know is that it is possible to do so (drumlin security, for example, wraps a .pdf in a reader which prevents virtual printing).

    I would think that as more and more physical books become eBooks - a worldwide phenomenon - such a basic security method should be a part of any decent .pdf creation app. It might even be considered unethical not to provide it. I can't understand why it wasn't a feature built in at ground up.

    Perhaps, though, Adobe wants publishers to go through their expensive Content Server eBook solution instead. Does anyone know if this solution has this option to choose to print only to a physical printer?

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