One of the greatest annoyances of our days are locked PDF files.
Here are some ideas what you can do.
If you are on Linux, you can use Evince:
http://www.giannistsakiris.com/index.php/2009/02/24/how-to-unlock-a-secu...
On Windows, you have the Freeware PDF Unlocker:
http://freeware-pdf-unlocker.en.softonic.com/
which utilizes the open source Ghostscript:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostscript/
Either of them would make a good Portable App.
Foxit/Sumatra can save it to .xps only, and that is just not that convenient, because... which PortableApp can open an .xps file anyways?
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I've had trouble with copying and pasting some PDFs. It pastes garbage (probably encrypted). Is there an easy way to get the letters that are actually on the screen rather than the junk (cipher text?) I've tried several methods, all of which have failed.
then jpg and OCR it.
This might or might not then read also characters which are as full graphic and not as chars in the pdf.
But we have to think what is the encryption here for? Yes to be encrypted and be possible to decrypt. Otherwise it will not make any sense.
And more: the pdf was thought initially to be format which will make sure the documents can not be altered later. So as people start dismantle them, adobe and co will produce other means to prevent this.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Thank you.
I sometimes like to copy and paste sentences/paragraphs from ebooks into text files for future reference. Having to use a solution like that is not much easier than manually typing it (unless I need most of a page).
I even tried using Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable from this site to see if I could copy from within that to get the actual screen results. I am wondering if a homegrown screen text copy utility could be made... one that gets what's really on the monitor.
works most of the time well for just copy paste. The result is simply a graphic, jpg, bmp, gif what ever you like.
To convert all to real text needs OCR since when you see the pdf text, you have no idea if this is done with embedded fonts, standard fonts or some kind of pure pixel graphic, unless you have the original document provided, well then you dont bother.
OCR software should sense it pixel by pixel and estimate what it is (in theory). This is the only way to cover all variations.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland