How do I disable text copying without disabling printing on a PDF?

[adamc027]

Hi Team,

I'm trying to set permissions on a PDF file using Acrobat DC Pro on a Mac wherein copying of text is disabled but printing remains enabled, however it would seem that the two settings are inextricably linked. I do believe that you can have one without the other....otherwise they wouldn't have their own settings, right? Am I being foolish? Is it a glitch? I notice the same problem when setting security parameters in Apple Preview so there's something rotten in Denmark, but if anyone here knows how to achieve this, I would be super grateful for any wisdom or advice you can provide.

Edit: It would seem that Apple Preview is bypassing the security settings...set forth both in Acrobat Pro DC and its own Save-As-PDF security settings. Is it just that Apple Preview is too cool for school? Would love to find a way to beat it if possible.

Thanks!

Message was edited by: Christian Adams

[Joel_Geraci · Accepted solution]

Generally, if you allow printing, you shouldn't bother with security at all because the user can just print to a 3rd party PDF creator and get an unsecured file.

[margueritek]

A little kludgy, but: You can save the PDF as Image, which will give you one image per page, then create a PDF from the images. That gives you a flattened PDF with no text to select. Of course, the user could just run OCR on the images...