How to revert links in a PDF of a screenshot

[nwoolf]

I apologize if this is not the right forum for help, but I was wondering if anyone could help me solve this problem, or at the very least understand what has happened.

I had a student who was visiting unauthorized websites and looking up videos to circumvent our schools content blocker, so I took a screenshot of his web history and google activity on youtube. I went thought print screen, and then saved the file as a pdf instead of printing it. Now, I've noticed that it is not a true static screenshot. The links in the screenshot work and now the links to the sites he was visiting link to "sign in to google" instead. I had no idea that pdfs of a print screen would do this. The student has since deleted his browsing history and now this pdf is useless in terms of evidence. If I try to revert to an older version it says that one does not exist. Is there any way to recover the pdf as it was originally saved?

I am using Mac 10.14.1 if that makes any difference

[try67]

That's not how screenshots work. They are just a static image of what's on the screen in the moment you take them, not matter the format used, certainly in PDF files, which don't even have the ability to display dynamic web contents...

[nwoolf]

That's what I thought, but I can click all of the links in the PDF and it takes me to the website. So perhaps I did not make a true screenshot when I did Command + P to print the screen. Instead of printing it I saved it as a PDF. Is there any way to retrieve the original? Even if it is the original dynamic link?

[try67]

Ah, you're talking about the links. That's something else entirely. The answer is no, you can't do that.

Those links will take you to the website the way that it is now, for you. You should have taken a screenshot of the actual page, not of a link to it...

[Test Screen Name · Accepted solution]

Command+P is not a screen shot, it's a print. Entirely different. A print to PDF won't preserve links EITHER but it will at least be text and if the PDF contains a true URL, visible on the page, then many PDF viewers will follow the links. You don't need to click the link, though, you can just read the URL from the screen.