Viewers for PDF, PS, and DVIWhat controls PDF security settings??

Information and discussion about output viewers related to LaTeX (e.g. Adobe Reader, Ghostview, YAP, ...)
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magister
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:42 am

What controls PDF security settings??

Post by magister »

I have MikTeX 2.7, with all files updated using the MikTeX package manager. Adobe Reader 9.2 tells me that my PDFs were produced by MikTeX sdvipdfmx(0.7.3 svn 811). I use TeXworks as my editor.

I want to send out a PDF for review, but Adobe Reader tells me that commenting is not allowed (Document / Security / Show security properties). And, in fact, if I request that the commenting toolbar be shown while viewing the PDF, Reader won't.

Finally I got access to a machine with the full version of Acrobat, which tells me that there are no security settings in my PDF and that commenting is allowed (along with everything else).

So what's going on? What controls the security settings when I generate my PDF? I am using hyperref to set PDF keywords and so forth, but none of these properties overlap with the ones shown by the security properties in Adobe Reader; I also looked at the hyperref docs and found nothing about setting security. Is this caused by the MikTeX PDF driver? In my PDF, most things are allowed, but commenting, document assembly, and signing are not.

Most importantly, how do I fix this since I normally don't have access to the full version of Acrobat?

Thanks- David

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frabjous
Posts: 2064
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:20 am

Re: What controls PDF security settings??

Post by frabjous »

The ability for Adobe software to allow commenting is an Adobe-specific extension, and I'm fairly sure that only Acrobat can enable this feature (It requires adding a digital signature or something comparable directly from Adobe).

That said, that property only involves the ability for comments to be added using Adobe software. You should still be able to add comments using, e.g., PDF X-Change viewer, Fox-it or online via A.nnotate (or with the pdfcomments LaTeX package).
magister
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:42 am

Re: What controls PDF security settings??

Post by magister »

Thanks, frabjous. I tried changing the permissions using the full copy of Acrobat but was not successful. I already am familiar with Foxit, but will check out the other packages you mention.

David
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