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neiln31444299
neiln31444299
Participant
August 9, 2019
解決済み

how do I prevent download or sharing of a PDF file

  • August 9, 2019
  • 返信数 6.
  • 111962 ビュー

If I want to link my PDF file so people can view it, but not share it, download it or even comment, how do I do that?  What Abode product will let me setup the way a Pdf document can be used for only viewing and nothing else, no download, no sharing, and no comments?

Thank you.

    解決に役立った回答 Bernd Alheit

    You can restrict the usage of PDF files with Digital Rights Management (DRM).

    返信数 6

    P
    pdf_7385
    Participant
    July 30, 2025

    You can share shortcut to the file for people to download. This way people will be able to download and share a path to the file rather than the file itself. Someone could still screenshot the page if they wanted to but downloading the PDF would be disabled. This can be achieved with a simple url file. If you are not a developer there is an app, Salepager, that can do this for you.

    try67
    Community Expert
    try67Community Expert
    Community Expert
    July 30, 2025

    Once someone opened the file, they can save it to their computer and share it with others, without the need for your shortcut. The only way to do what you described is with DRM protection, which is quite expensive.

    M
    mariak38518758
    Participant
    March 25, 2021

    I faced the same issues when I wanted to share a pdf in an elearning but did not want the users to be able to download it. What I did was use the Adobe Reader DC app to export the pdf as an html web page, then embeded it as web object in my elearning package. Worked as intended after publishing. Users can not download it. Hope it helps. 

    try67
    Community Expert
    try67Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 25, 2021

    Sure they can. HTML pages can be downloaded just as easily as PDF files.

      M
      mariak38518758
      Participant
      March 25, 2021

      True. But for my case my users are unlikely to save the entire webpage.
      So I agree that this option may not be the best for all cases, but may work for some.

        Bill8132957394
        Bill8132957394
        Inspiring
        March 4, 2020

        Confused by all the "thats impossible" comments. Can't you just share on google drive and disable downloading? What am I missing? -billb

          Bernd Alheit
          Community Expert
          Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          March 4, 2020

          When you disable downloading Acrobat Reader and Adobe Acrobat can't display the PDF file.

            Bill8132957394
            Bill8132957394
            Inspiring
            March 20, 2020

            It was not important to me that people use Adobe reader or actrobat to consume my content. I was trying to meet at need:

            THE NEED:
            Share the contents my PDF with select people, without allowing them to download, copy, or print.

            THE SOLUTION:
            Google drive with no download. It will display the PDF contents and not let them copy/download/print.

            It's working great. I've been using it. I understand others may have different needs that this does not address.

            -billb

              try67
              Community Expert
              try67Community Expert
              Community Expert
              October 19, 2019

              I recommend no one use this website. See my review of it here: https://community.adobe.com/t5/Acrobat/how-to-prevent-pdf-files-save-locally-or-forward-the-to-anyone/td-p/10376802

              In short, the protection it offers is easily overcome and it is not clear who (or what) is behind it, that you're giving access to your sensitive files to...

              Dov Isaacs
              Dov Isaacs
              Legend
              August 9, 2019

              Unless you host your own PDF viewer on your website such that the PDF file itself is not internally downloaded by whatever PDF reader the user has on their computer (i.e., your website displays a raster bitmap of the PDF content), there is absolutely no way to prevent the file from being downloaded and shared using Abode (sic) software.

                        - Dov

              - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
                neiln31444299
                neiln31444299作成者
                Participant
                August 9, 2019

                Dear Dov, 

                Thank you for the response. Please indulge me if I seem unfamiliar with certain terms..."host your own PDF viewer on your website" what does that mean, again?  My intention is to have PDF file on a page on the my website.  A viewer would click on a link and the PDF would open or is the PDF file open when the viewer clicks on that page?   The PDF file is from a Word document.  Can the Word document properties be changed to restrict access and then converted to PDF with those document properties?

                Neil

                  Bernd Alheit
                  Community Expert
                  Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
                  Community Expert
                  March 19, 2020

                  Thanks s much for your insight, could you please expantiate more on what you said, "PDF renderer on your server showing the PDF residing on your server". I feel this is what I have been looking for.


                  On the server use a app which converts the PDF pages into images. Then display the images.

                  Info: You can't use Adobe Acrobat for this.

                    Bernd Alheit
                    Community Expert
                    Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
                    Community Expert
                    August 9, 2019

                    This is not possible.

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