no-print flag in .pdfs (was Re: [pdftex] Fonts )

[William Adams]

Reinhard asked:
 >Does the PDF spec allow to set a flag that says that printing is
 >discouraged?

Yes.

 >That would be a little bit useful, though not safe at all.

Tolerably safe---I've one such which appears in the TeX Showcase at
http://www.tug.org/texshowcase

The Book of Tea by Okakura Kazuko
http://members.aol.com/willadams/portfolio/typography/thebookoftea.pdf
(~2.8MB)
small file here:
http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/partofTheBookofTea.pdf

The problem is, one has to decrypt the .pdf so as to show it on-screen,
then it's merely a matter of whether or no the program honours the
no-print &c. flags---as noted, by changing a line or two in xpdf,
one can change its behaviour, and Apple's Preview.app prior to
Mac OS X 10.1 didn't honour this flag....

If one wants a more secure document, look to the e-book programs
which have proprietary readers.

William

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William Adams, publishing specialist
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