EXP Systems Forum: Merge problem traced to restricted PDF

Message

Almost posted a question the other day, but ended up solving the problem myself. In the process,  I discovered something about PDFs that I hadn't known before — namely, that "restricted" PDFs exist, and that it may not be possible to manipulate a restricted PDF without first removing the restrictions. 

To backtrack....

A software company had emailed me a PDF receipt for a software purchase.  After downloading the receipt, I attempted to merge it with another PDF that I'd created myself using PDF reDirect.

The two wouldn't merge. The individual PDFs were showing up in the preview pane, but attempts to merge them resulted in blank pages. 

It took an hour of mystified frustration to discover that the software receipt had restrictions on it. Once the restrictions were removed, the two PDFs merged with no problem.

There are, as it turns out, many sites that will remove PDF restrictions (I used a free site called FreeMyPDF).

Am posting my experience in case anyone else encounters this problem!

Author	Message
BrooksNYC Newbie Joined: 13 Feb 13 Posts: 2	Topic: Merge problem traced to restricted PDF Posted: 15 Feb 13 at 11:09AM
	Almost posted a question the other day, but ended up solving the problem myself. In the process, I discovered something about PDFs that I hadn't known before — namely, that "restricted" PDFs exist, and that it may not be possible to manipulate a restricted PDF without first removing the restrictions. To backtrack.... A software company had emailed me a PDF receipt for a software purchase. After downloading the receipt, I attempted to merge it with another PDF that I'd created myself using PDF reDirect. The two wouldn't merge. The individual PDFs were showing up in the preview pane, but attempts to merge them resulted in blank pages. It took an hour of mystified frustration to discover that the software receipt had restrictions on it. Once the restrictions were removed, the two PDFs merged with no problem. There are, as it turns out, many sites that will remove PDF restrictions (I used a free site called FreeMyPDF). Am posting my experience in case anyone else encounters this problem!
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yorkshire_lad Newbie Joined: 29 Jan 10 Posts: 29	Posted: 15 Feb 13 at 11:16AM
	Yup, I've seen this too. A couple of ways round it are a) to print the pdf to PDF redirect (sometimes isn't very happy) & save it out. b) get the offending pdf into the merge list and save it under a new filename (sometimes putting a blank page in the merge list as first page helps). There's loads of security you can put on a pdf from passwords, to restriction specific activies such as copy/paste (it's _really_ annoying when people do that).
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BrooksNYC Newbie Joined: 13 Feb 13 Posts: 2	Posted: 15 Feb 13 at 11:38AM
	*Originally posted by yorkshire_lad* There's loads of security you can put on a pdf from passwords, to restriction specific activies such as copy/paste ! ! ! Thank you for lifting the veil. I've always wondered why my PDF reader could select/copy text from some PDFs, but not others.
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Using PDF reDirect
EXP Systems Forum : PDF reDirect : Using PDF reDirect