Flattening all Content in a PDF

[tyfi]

I am trying to make a permanent, un-removable watermark. I've got some custom javascript that puts a vector watermark on the pdf.

Just for good measure I use the flatten image option in both action wizard and preflight (I am using Acrobat X). However if I go to "navigation pane -> content" I can still see the individual watermark and delete it.

What am I missing in order to flatten all containers together? (i.e. essentially save the files as jpegs and then combine them again).

[try67]

You can export the file to an image format and then re-create it. That would achieve this goal. It will also remove all the "real" text from it, as well as a bunch of other things (comments, fields, links, metadata, etc.).

[tyfi]

Thanks for the input @try67 I'm looking for something a little more automated (I'll be doing this to hundreds of pdf's). Also I worry that converting them to images and back again would degrade the image quality.

[try67]

It might, yes, but that is the only way of doing it that I'm aware of.

It might be possible to automate it, but I'm not sure that you'd want to do that within Acrobat. A standalone application might be a more suitable tool for this task.

[Joel Geraci]

Converting to image and then image to PDF will degrade the image unless you do the conversion at high resolution but hen your files will be HUGE and slow to render.

What exactly is the watermark for and why aren't you using encryption to disable editing?

[tyfi]

The files are password protected to restrict editing (via Adobe Acrobat), but it is so easy to bypass if you know how that I don't view it as much of a protection. Is there another form of encryption that I'm not aware of?

The work I am trying to protect could easily be taken and passed of as someone elses work. I'm trying to protect my work by making it very time consuming to take the watermarks out. The pdf's have images/ diagrams so it would be next to impossible to take the watermark out assuming that they merged on the same layer.

[Joel Geraci]

If you use password security at 256 bit AES with a long password and encrypt all content, it's very hard to break. Most of the PDF crackers can't handle 256 bit AES. If you "Allow Printing" be sure it's set to low res so that the pages get rasterized to 150 dpi image before printing, that way if they print o a PDF driver, it's an image... with your watermark.

If that's not enough, look at FileOpen