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Any book that gives a full pdf preview, I’m at least considering purchasing. I don’t want to take money out of the author’s pocket, but this, > Printing has b

by jfoutz 2y ago

Any book that gives a full pdf preview, I’m at least considering purchasing. I don’t want to take money out of the author’s pocket, but this, > Printing has been disabled from within this pdf file, so although you can view the entire book, you will not be able to print it. Yeah, I don’t believe that. The goal of the author is admirable. I feel like they got fooled somehow, but maybe they do understand and are just hinting that if you’re going to read it, kick them some cash.

Davidzheng 2y ago
I think it's like a wink wink
- jfoutz 2y ago
  That makes so much sense.
LegionMammal978 2y ago
> Yeah, I don’t believe that. The PDF format does actually let documents instruct PDF processors to disallow printing [0]; Acrobat Reader (if nothing else) presumably respects these instructions, even though they're obviously possible to work around. [0] e.g., https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/pdfstandards/pdfreference1.7old.pdf https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/pdfstandard..., p. 123, Table 3.20, "User access permissions", and probably others that I can't find right now
- jfoutz 2y ago
  It's absolutely lovely that you looked up the spec. First, you could screenshot each page, and print that. That's a lift. Second, It's not that hard to extract text from pdf file formats. That's also a lift. but like, it's not that complicated. yes, text flow, font selection, on and on, but it's just postscript. Pull the text and print it. It's signed not encrypted. It's challenging to implement pdf. javascript support is nuts, for example. But if you just want to pull the text? there's not much to it. Pay the author. It's not much. But like, it's not locked down.
dmbche 2y ago
Like how cheap Masterlocks can be overcome by amateurs, even though it's not a real deterrent it "keeps honest people honest"

by jfoutz 2y ago

Davidzheng 2y ago

I think it's like a wink wink

jfoutz 2y ago
That makes so much sense.

LegionMammal978 2y ago

> Yeah, I don’t believe that. The PDF format does actually let documents instruct PDF processors to disallow printing [0]; Acrobat Reader (if nothing else) presumably respects these instructions, even though they're obviously possible to work around. [0] e.g., https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/pdfstandards/pdfreference1.7old.pdf https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/pdfstandard..., p. 123, Table 3.20, "User access permissions", and probably others that I can't find right now

jfoutz 2y ago
It's absolutely lovely that you looked up the spec. First, you could screenshot each page, and print that. That's a lift. Second, It's not that hard to extract text from pdf file formats. That's also a lift. but like, it's not that complicated. yes, text flow, font selection, on and on, but it's just postscript. Pull the text and print it. It's signed not encrypted. It's challenging to implement pdf. javascript support is nuts, for example. But if you just want to pull the text? there's not much to it. Pay the author. It's not much. But like, it's not locked down.

dmbche 2y ago

Like how cheap Masterlocks can be overcome by amateurs, even though it's not a real deterrent it "keeps honest people honest"