Adobe Acrobat Reader DC for use on a commercial server

[MightyFool]

Hi,

I want to use Adobe Acrobat Reader DC on a Windows 2016 server to generate .PNG previews of PDF's. These generated previews will be used in a commercial web product. The PDF's themselves will be opened in the default .PDF viewer from the browser.

The software itself won't be distributed, the servers are owned by a third party where we have full access to.

It's used in the back-end purely to generate preview files.

Now my question is, is this allowed?

Please let me know, thanks in advance!

[Test Screen Name]

Reader doesn’t have a PNG converter. Acrobat does but it isn’t for server use. Look into LiveCycle PDF Generator (despite the name), enterprise level server product.

[MightyFool]

It doesn't but it generates thumbnails and we can use those. Just like in the Windows file explorer.

[Dave Merchant]

Acrobat products cannot be used in a server environment for 'headless' processing. The correct way to do this is to use one of the many image manipulation libraries (e.g. ImageMagick) that can read PDFs and output PNGs.

[MightyFool]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Dave+Merchant  schreef

Acrobat products cannot be used in a server environment for 'headless' processing.

You mean legally or technically? If you mean legally, what's your source for this?

[Dave Merchant]

Legally. Section 3.2 of the Acrobat Reader License:

http://wwwimages.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/legal/licenses-terms/pdf/PlatformClients_PC_WWEULA-en...

[MightyFool]

It seems like it's possible but it requires a distribution license

https://distribute.adobe.com/mmform/index.cfm?name=distribution_form&pv=rdr

I'll look into it, thank you for the link

[Dave Merchant]

A distribution license is for clients wishing to deploy Adobe products through a virtual desktop (e.g. Citrix) where the application runs on a server but is controlled by a client session.

Acrobat products can never be used in a service-driven 'CGI' configuration. They are for desktop use by a human operator only. Adobe's server products for PDF manipulation are all within the LiveCycle suite.

[MightyFool]

Where do you get all this?

I found a related question and Adobe staff says it's allowed on servers:License for server

Please let me know the source of your info.

[Dave Merchant]

The thread you link to is asking about setting up a client desktop system, as I explained in the previous comment that is allowed, with a distribution license in place. It is NOT about runing the software as a back-end automated process.

Read the License Agreement. It's perfectly clear that what you are asking is forbidden, and the reason is obvious - Adobe want you to buy LiveCycle ES.

[MightyFool]

Okay Dave, thanks for you answers so far.

I'm looking at the license but I'm no license expert. If you have time, can you please point to the part where it says this?

Thanks in advance.

[Dave Merchant · Accepted solution]

3.2 Server Use. This agreement does not permit you to install or Use the Software on a computer file server.