[reportlab-users] Locking a pdf

[Andy Robinson]

On 07/06/07, Jim Steil <jim at qlf.com> wrote:

> Hi:

>

> I'm using ReportLab to generate price lists that we are going to email

> to our customers.  Using Adobe Acrobat, I can go into my generated price

> lists and make changes to them.  Is there a way in ReportLab to prevent

> this from happening?  Can I 'lock' my pdf's so no one can change them?


This needs our PdfEncrypt product, which gives you an additional
Python API to do that.  You should be aware that this 'locking' is
fundamentally weak protection and there are utilities out there to
"crack" these PDF files easily,  but it's probably enough to stop
casual tampering by non-programmers.

For people using this in less-than-industrial volumes we would
normally grant a license in return for joining our Developer Network
programme (about $2000), which would enable a lot more features too.
 I realise this is a lot for the functionality but we're not really
geared up to support a lot of small customers.

You will almost certainly be able to find non-Python utilities to do
this a lot cheaper or perhaps even free.

Best Regards,


Andy Robinson