We have a very specific use case for an application we're developing, where a user will be presented with a PDF document, which they can print off. However, we need to be able to restrict the PDF so it can only be printed off once. Does anyone know if there's a way to restrict the number of times a PDF can be printed.
"Adobe use their Adobe Content Server to protect eBooks and PDFs along with Adobe Digital Editions (their free eBook and PDF reader) on the client side. This allows the distribution of PDFs with more flexible security options than the usual standalone PDF will allow. For example, documents can be time limited or allow only a certain number of pages to be printed.
This may well be a sledgehammer solution to your problem as I've no idea of Adobe's pricing for this product or whether is's practical for a small number of documents. It's used by the likes of the British Library (until recently anyway) for electronic inter-library loans which expire after 2 weeks and only allow the article to be printed once."
Even if you can do this, you can't stop user from makeing screenshot and then printing an image or something like that. If user can see data, you can not stop him from makeing a copy, so my advice is "don't even try". Make a noticeable warning that pdf should be printed only once and leave it like that, because if user want's to print it two times he/she will find the way.
"The idea that a software program can control that a user only prints something once is a flawed idea. Think about paper jam - just because some application or operating system successfully have sent of a printing job to the printer does not guarantie that the user gets a copy. So what should the user do then?
Or what about the printer being configured to print X copies of each sheet? What about scanners or photo copiers?
And finally, while there obviously is no benefits from the user's point of view for such an anti-feature, I have absolutely no idea what the benefit should be for your company. Could you please explain what excatly what the benefit for doing such a thing is?"
"I cannot find any Adobe PDF feature that counts the number of times the document is printed. I only find disabling all printing. This makes sense when taken with the following in view:
If I were the PDF pirate you fear, and you created this elusive print-once PDF, I would merely send it to my printer, once.
Whereupon:
On a Mac I would choose to preview the printout before clicking ""print"", and save the PDF preview it generates.
On a PC I would ask the printer driver to also spool the job to a file.
Or on either I would choose a print-to-file driver, many of which are free.
And if none of these above options were available to me, I could ask my printer driver for many models to also spool the PostScript to disk first, or in dire cases, sniff the network traffic to the printer off of the network. It's generally not authenticated or encrypted. The PostScript could even be distilled back to PDF if need be.
Edit: Even with the java printing applet that Pitney-Bowes uses to print postage, which seems to disable the preview option I've saved the resulting print job for reprinting. But I don't use this option any more because it simply cannot seem to print correctly on any kind of paper size, it's always printing the bar code off the margins of the page, even when I play it straight with the print-once intent."
"The scenario we have is related to voucher/coupon printing. Basically, the client needs to ensure a user only has one copy of the voucher. Having validation at redemption (in store) isn't an option, so it needs to be at the time of printing the voucher.
Did you consider personalising the prints, requiring some id (and maybe some signature) when using the print in a store, and leave it up to the sales agreement that only a single copy is to be used? Then you'd need some final processing (at some later time), to register what vouchers have been used multiple times, and (threaten to) bill the customer for that... (This could even be an additional thing, next to trying to limit the number of prints.)
Note that not everyone has a quality printer. Some scans or photocopies may look better than some original printouts.
Also, like @RBerteig already noted, some customers may not even have a printer at all, or may have run out of ink. How would they print at some neighbour or at work when your solution needs additional software, like (the horrible, in my opinion) Adobe Digital Editions? Extending on that: what will the electronic voucher be like? I think you'll be implementing some online validation at redemption in the next release, for those showing you some barcode on their smartphone rather than some paper voucher.
We're aware the whole concept has fundamental flaws, but we basically want to make it as hard as possible for average Joe to print off more than 1. [..] Problem is, a competitor has produced a number of solutions, through ActiveX controls, and dedicated apps you have to install to handle all this, we're just trying to find a more elegant solution.
Ok, it's clear that you will eventually implement some solution that will not be very secure. I guess you'll have some written statement for the client about the risks. I suggest that in that written statement you also show the customer how easily that competitor's solution can be used to print multiple copies."
