Securing Digital Art ? .pdf size limit

[Evolve Studio]

I have a problem. I'm a digital artist and I try to secure my works - especially when it comes to distributing my image to print shops to make prints. The only method I know how to do that is saving my works in .pdf format. Photoshop or the file format limits this to only 2GB.I want to secure the image to be print only along with saving it's copyright metadata.

I'm not sure how to do that when my project is 36x24 inches, 16 bit, 600 ppi. It's just a smidge over 2GB. I really don't want to comprimise print quality. Is there a solution or recommendation?

Thanks,

Nathan

[Trevor.Dennis]

Goodness!  If you don't trust your printer not to steal your artwork, you are in for an unhappy life as an artist.  I am not sure how reliable PDF security is anyway.  I had a multi language user manaul that was upsetting my OCD so I wanted to remove all but the English language pages.  The PDF was password protected so I asked Google and found several options on how to bypass that protection.

Have you tried looking for Digital Image Security options?  I bet there's a Reddit forum that covers it.

[Evolve Studio]

Haha, it's funny when you put it in that perspective. No, I think in security terms of long term document circulation. One print shop that I do trust and still work with -  I noticed they weren't deleting my files after print. There are instances when this image would have to go to a print shop not local to me. 

I did research on this (securing methods) a couple months ago, and really .pdf was really the only way that made sense for me. There is an option for (I think) subscribing for Adobe security tokens for documents - really made for large companies. Doesn't really fit the scenario for some dude in an art studio lol. I reduced the image to 500ppi and came within the requirements. But, the question still stands. Seeing as the year is 2022 and working with large high quality images is becoming more of a norm. Especially for the perspective of the growing popularity of serious digital works. 

But you're right - there has to be something out there that I'm unaware of for securing digital images.

[Trevor.Dennis]

@jane-e  is our Acrobat expert, so she might be able to tell you if a PDF image with password protection is secure.  She has been tagged and will likely be along shortly.