Removing placed images from a PDF?

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
September 18, 2017
1 reply
2851 views

I just found out that a local online newspaper used an image I created in one of their ads–without permission. The only way they could have obtained the image is from a downloadable PDF of the ad. The ad was originally created in InDesign with placed Photoshop and Illustrator images.

Quite frankly, I'm not too concerned about them stealing the image, but what perplexes me is how were they able to remove the placed Illustrator images that were on top of the Photoshop image with just a PDF? Also is there something I need to be doing to my PDFs to prevent others from reusing my work?

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Correct answer try67

Extracting images from a PDF file is very easy. There's even a built-in command in Acrobat that allows you to do it, and of course, one can always take a screenshot of the page and extract the image like that. You could apply a security policy to the file to prevent content extraction, but it's also very easy to get around it, as many PDF applications ignore it (unfortunately).

Basically, there's no technical solution to prevent it. The only real solution is to include a copyright notice and then sue anyone who uses your work without your permission.

try67

Correct answer

Community Expert

Extracting images from a PDF file is very easy. There's even a built-in command in Acrobat that allows you to do it, and of course, one can always take a screenshot of the page and extract the image like that. You could apply a security policy to the file to prevent content extraction, but it's also very easy to get around it, as many PDF applications ignore it (unfortunately).

Basically, there's no technical solution to prevent it. The only real solution is to include a copyright notice and then sue anyone who uses your work without your permission.

K

kcrossleyAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for the info. Out of curiosity, what is the built-in command? I'm really curious to see how this is done.

Would flattening the images before a PDF is created make extracting individual images more difficult?

try67

Community Expert

It's called "Extract all images". The exact location depends on your version of Acrobat. If you have DC try searching for it.

In XI or X it's under Tools - Document Processing.

Depends on what kind of flattening you mean... You can merge everything into a single image, I guess, so it won't be possible to extract each image individually. That will only make it (slightly) more difficult to do, not impossible.

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