Is it possible to produce a PDF with un-copyable text?

Question

Is it possible to produce a PDF with un-copyable text? I mean, when you want to copy text from the PDF, you can't copy it or what you copy is nonsense characters.

Answer 1

Besides converting all texts to images, one method as I know, is to destroy the Cmaps of the fonts. We can use cmap package and a special cmap file for this purpose. This cmap file is generated inside the VerbatimOut environment.

(Warning: it does not make much sense to produce un-copyable PDF. OCR is very easy today.)

% pdflatex is required
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[resetfonts]{cmap}
\usepackage{fancyvrb}
\begin{VerbatimOut}{ot1.cmap}
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 Resource-CMap
%%DocumentNeededResources: ProcSet (CIDInit)
%%IncludeResource: ProcSet (CIDInit)
%%BeginResource: CMap (TeX-OT1-0)
%%Title: (TeX-OT1-0 TeX OT1 0)
%%Version: 1.000
%%EndComments
/CIDInit /ProcSet findresource begin
12 dict begin
begincmap
/CIDSystemInfo
<< /Registry (TeX)
/Ordering (OT1)
/Supplement 0
>> def
/CMapName /TeX-OT1-0 def
/CMapType 2 def
1 begincodespacerange
<00> <7F>
endcodespacerange
8 beginbfrange
<00> <01> <0000>
<09> <0A> <0000>
<23> <26> <0000>
<28> <3B> <0000>
<3F> <5B> <0000>
<5D> <5E> <0000>
<61> <7A> <0000>
<7B> <7C> <0000>
endbfrange
40 beginbfchar
<02> <0000>
<03> <0000>
<04> <0000>
<05> <0000>
<06> <0000>
<07> <0000>
<08> <0000>
<0B> <0000>
<0C> <0000>
<0D> <0000>
<0E> <0000>
<0F> <0000>
<10> <0000>
<11> <0000>
<12> <0000>
<13> <0000>
<14> <0000>
<15> <0000>
<16> <0000>
<17> <0000>
<18> <0000>
<19> <0000>
<1A> <0000>
<1B> <0000>
<1C> <0000>
<1D> <0000>
<1E> <0000>
<1F> <0000>
<21> <0000>
<22> <0000>
<27> <0000>
<3C> <0000>
<3D> <0000>
<3E> <0000>
<5C> <0000>
<5F> <0000>
<60> <0000>
<7D> <0000>
<7E> <0000>
<7F> <0000>
endbfchar
endcmap
CMapName currentdict /CMap defineresource pop
end
end
%%EndResource
%%EOF
\end{VerbatimOut}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\lipsum

\end{document}

Answer 2

Luatex allows manipulating fonts in the define_font callback. Luaotfload facilitates this even more with an extra hook it installs right after the font loader has finished its job: the luaotfload.patch_font callback. Normally it is used for serious and constructive tasks like setting a couple font dimensions or ensuring backward compatibility in the data structures. Of course, it can also be abused for dirty hacks like disabling copy and paste.

At the point where the patch_font callback is applied, the font is already defined and ready to use. All necessary tables are created and put in a place where Luatex expects them. Among these is the characters table that holds preprocessed information about the glyphs. In the below code we modify the tounicode field of each glyph so that it maps to some random location within the printable ASCII range. Note that this does not affect the shape and metrics of the glyph since those are unrelated to the actual codepoint. As a consequence, the PDF will contain legible text that cannot be copied.

Package file obfuscate.lua:

packagedata = packagedata or { }

local mathrandom    = math.random
local stringformat  = string.format

--- this is the callback by means of which we will obfuscate
--- the tounicode values so they map to random characters of
--- the printable ascii range (between 0x21 / 33 and 0x7e / 126)

local obfuscate = function (tfmdata, _specification)
  if not tfmdata or type (tfmdata) ~= "table" then
    return
  end

  local characters = tfmdata.characters
  if characters then
    for codepoint, char in next, characters do
      char.tounicode = stringformat ([[%0.4X]], mathrandom (0x21, 0x7e))
    end
  end
end

--- we also need some functions to toggle the callback activation so
--- we can obfuscate fonts selectively

local active = false

packagedata.obfuscate_begin = function ()
  if not active then
    luatexbase.add_to_callback ("luaotfload.patch_font", obfuscate,
                                "user.obfuscate_font", 1)
    active = true
  end
end

packagedata.obfuscate_end = function ()
  if active then
    luatexbase.remove_from_callback ("luaotfload.patch_font",
                                     "user.obfuscate_font")
    active = false
  end
end

Usage demonstration:

%% we will need these packages
\input luatexbase.sty
\input luaotfload.sty

%% for inspecting the pdf with an ordinary editor
\pdfcompresslevel0
\pdfobjcompresslevel0

%% load obfuscation code
\RequireLuaModule {obfuscate}

%% convenience macro
\def \packagecmd #1{\directlua {packagedata.#1}}

%% the obfuscate environment, mapping to Lua functions that enable and
%% disable tounicode obfuscation
\def \beginobfuscate {\packagecmd {obfuscate_begin ()}}
\def \endobfuscate   {\packagecmd {obfuscate_end   ()}}

%%···································································%%
%% Demo
%%···································································%%

%% firstly, load some fonts. within the “obfuscate” environment all
%% fonts will get their cmaps scrambled ...

\beginobfuscate

  \font \mainfont   = "file:Iwona-Regular.otf:mode=base"
  \font \italicfont = "file:Iwona-Italic.otf:mode=base"

\endobfuscate

%% ... while fonts defined outside will have the mapping intact

\font \boldfont       = "file:Iwona-Bold.otf:mode=base"
\font \bolditalicfont = "file:Iwona-BoldItalic.otf:mode=base"

%% now we can use them in our document like any ordinary font

\mainfont
obfuscated text before {\italicfont     obfuscated too} and after \par
obfuscated text before {\boldfont       not obfuscated} and after \par
obfuscated text before {\bolditalicfont not obfuscated} and after \par

\bye

Result in PDF viewer:

Contrast this with the output of pdftotext:

\rf2yC'I_J I_dI r_f\{_ 9;H`bp<<L& <99 '5J 'fI_{
\rf2yC'I_J I_dI r_f\{_ not obfuscated '5J 'fI_{
\rf2yC'I_J I_dI r_f\{_ not obfuscated '5J 'fI_{

But please forget about all this immediately and never obfuscate a production text -- don’t be mean to your readers!

---

EDIT Because the generous karma donor specifically asked for a Context solution, I’ll throw that one in as a bonus. It is a good deal more elegant since it relies on the font goodies mechanism that allows applying postprocessors to specific fonts which can afterwards be used just like common font features.

\startluacode

local mathrandom    = math.random
local stringformat  = string.format

--- create a postprocessor

local obfuscate = function (tfmdata)
  fonts.goodies.registerpostprocessor (tfmdata, function (tfmdata)
    if not tfmdata or type (tfmdata) ~= "table" then
      return
    end

    local characters = tfmdata.characters
    if characters then
      for codepoint, char in next, characters do
        char.tounicode = stringformat ([[%0.4X]], mathrandom (0x21, 0x7e))
      end
    end
  end)
end

--- now register as a font feature

fonts.handlers.otf.features.register {
  name         = "obfuscate",
  description  = "treat the reader like a piece of garbage",
  default      = false,
  initializers = {
    base     = obfuscate,
    node     = obfuscate,
  }
}

\stopluacode

%%···································································%%
%% demonstration
%%···································································%%

%% we can now treat the obfuscation postprocessor like any other
%% font feature

\definefontfeature [obfuscate] [obfuscate=yes]

\definefont [mainfont]   [file:Iwona-Regular.otf*obfuscate]
\definefont [italicfont] [file:Iwona-Italic.otf*obfuscate]

\definefont [boldfont]       [file:Iwona-Bold.otf]
\definefont [bolditalicfont] [file:Iwona-BoldItalic.otf]


\starttext

  \mainfont
  obfuscated text before {\italicfont     obfuscated too} and after \par
  obfuscated text before {\boldfont       not obfuscated} and after \par
  obfuscated text before {\bolditalicfont not obfuscated} and after \par

\stoptext

Answer 3

Remarks

I use a little script, which converts all my fonts to paths. The script uses the first parameter as input of a .pdf-file and writes the output to a file with the same name and the extension-rst.pdf

You need Ghostscript for my script to run.

Implementation

Runs on bash

#!/bin/sh

GS=/usr/bin/gs

$GS -sDEVICE=ps2write       -dNOCACHE -sOutputFile=-        -q -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE "$1"       -c quit | ps2pdf - > "${1%%.*}-rst.pdf"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "Output written to ${1%%.*}-rst.pdf"
else
    echo "There were errors. See the output."
fi

use ps2write (instead of pswrite) these days as seen here.

Result

Answer 4

You can disable the copying of text with the help of PDF encryption. With it you can also disable other things like printing.

You need to use an external PDF tool like pdftk or of course the full version of Adobe Acrobat to encrypt the PDF.

Answer 5

If content can be viewed, it can be copied. No matter what encryption and restrictions are used, at some point the content must be put out in plain view in order for it to be of any use. This is probably true of all digital content and most physical content larger than the nanoscale...

For example, a PDF:

• Rasterisation: Printscreen => OCR
• Any protection: Re-type it out
• Content protection: Modified build of an open-source reader

Web content:

• Right-click popup: Opera=>Prevent page receiving content menu events
• Right-click popup: "Menu" button on any modern keyboard
• Flash: Download the SWF file, decompile it using free software
• View page source, use Chrome/Opera/Firefox debugger to get URL of desired content

Audio (e.g. HDCP):

• Headphones socket on TV => line-in socket on PC
• Solder to tap into preamplifier => line-in socket on PC

Video (e.g. HDCP):

• Many, many options... A quick google search will show you.

Encrypted content on someone's laptop/pendrive:

• Digital brute force: brute-force cracking of the encryption key
• Physical brute force: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/security.png

Answer 6

The answer is: Yes. There is a way described here: http://spivey.oriel.ox.ac.uk/corner/Obfuscated_PDF

But it looks tedious and doesn't use pdflatex. The method, however, is described as being portable to PDF. It involves changing glyphs of a font and other dirty things that get you bad dreams.

I didn't find a method described for directly PDF let alone something automated for pdflatex. I'll happily buy you a beverage of your choice if you implement it :-)

Answer 7

You can use Ghostscript for that. Just create your PDF as usual and run

 gs -o output.pdf -dNoOutputFonts -sDEVICE=pdfwrite input.pdf

Please note that you cannot prevent people from using OCR software like Tesseract on the output. I'm not even sure if making the PDF an image prevents todays search engines from indexing your PDF. The file size increases, people with eye problems will have a harder time. So think hard if you really want to harm your readers like that.

Answer 8

You can use ImageMagick to convert the pdf to an image pdf. Running convert file1.pdf file2.pdf will create a pdf called file2.pdf which is about the same size as the input pdf but since its an image, the text cannot be selected. There is a notable decrease in quality though

Answer 9

I am using gswin32 only make a pdf after change the format to ps:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\gs\gs9.09\bin\gswin32.exe" -sDEVICE=ps2write -r9000 
-dNOPAUSE -sOutputFile=OUTPUT.ps input_insecure.pdf

Now translate to pdf with secure mode 4 (only read and print):

"C:\Program Files (x86)\gs\gs9.09\bin\gswin32.exe" -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -r9000 
-dNOPAUSE -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -dMaxSubsetPct=100 
-dSubsetFonts=true -dEmbedAllFonts=true -sOwnerPassword=null -dEncryptionR=3 
-dKeyLength=40 -dPermissions=4 -sOutputFile=OUTPUT_secure.pdf output.ps

On a unix-based system, you can probably type gswin32 instead of "C:\Program Files (x86)\gs\gs9.09\bin\gswin32.exe".

Answer 10

Use XeTeX to at least get some "nonsense characters", see here and here.

Though this would obviously be just a nuisance for most cases/users (which can be avoided using LuaLaTeX instead), depending on what you are trying to achieve compiling with XeTeX may prove to add at least some value to your solution...

Answer 11

I came up with the following solution: I'm using ocrmypdf (https://github.com/jbarlow83/OCRmyPDF) which behind the scenes uses Tesseract, and I force it to OCR my pdf in a language with a very different alphabet (e.g. Korean). This will effectively replace my text content with none-sense, because of the differences in alphabets.

ocrmypdf --force-ocr -l kor input.pdf output.pdf

Answer 12

I don't think anyone has mentioned you can use expensive paid for security to try and stop screen grabbing. (You use a dedicated coded viewer and that monitors the system for known applications)

However as I have seen that defeated both by above mentioned "Typist" technique and also seen it cannot detect some "freeware" screen OCR grabbers, It would be pointless for anyone else to have given this as a valid answer.

Especially if they have a camera phone with OCR app or can hit the alternative "PrintScreen" button.

Please buy more snake oil it keeps the PDF industry thriving.