Extract page is greyed out. Is it because the document is locked?

[Lighthouse_Foundation]

I am trying to extract a page from a document but that feature is greyed out.

extract greyed out.jpg

Is this because the document is locked?

padlock.jpg

If so, how do I unlock it? It was sent to me from outside our organization.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello Lighthouse_Foundation,

Yes - when you see the padlock on a file - this means that there are restrictions on it and not all operations would be possible.
You can check what is allowed and what not through the Document Properties window (Ctrl + D) -> Security.

Kind regards,
Stefan

[rakunavi]

Hello Lighthouse_Foundation,

If so, how do I unlock it? It was sent to me from outside our organization.

In many cases, printing is permitted. In that case, you can create another PDF file via a virtual printer driver (PDF-XChange Lite, Microsoft Print to PDF, etc.), although the structure of the PDF document will change.

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, rakunavi

although the structure of the PDF document will change

This is a very important point, In some cases, printing will work fine, though we cannot officially endorse circumnavigating document security. There are also cases where printing will generate a version of the document which is missing content that is not printable, or the content could be converted to another format entirely (text may not be searchable, some pages may be turn into images, etc) due to the security.

Ideally, the only time that printing "should" be used on a secure file is when printing to a physical format, which of course, you would not be able to observe most of these issue with.

Kind regards,

[rakunavi]

Hi Daniel,

we cannot officially endorse circumnavigating document security.

I read between the lines the mood that you could not write officially, and as a user I tried to fill in the lines. If I should not have posted this, please delete my posts. I just commented on the almost same question as last time because I thought Lighthouse_Foundation might want a different answer.

• Can I unlock a locked document?
  https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?t=34531

Best regards,
rakunavi

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, rakunavi

Far be it from me to stop users from helping other users
I simply needed to put out a disclaimer that there is a reason these options are locked.

I hope you both have a good day,

[PHK]

...we cannot officially endorse circumnavigating document security...

I do not really regard using any PDF printing app as circumventing (or "circumnavigating", if you please) security measures applied to a file by its originator as any superficial examination of the new file will expose multiple differences from the source PDF file. The user is creating a new document file with a new "author." Period. That's what the virtual printer app does. It does not modify in any way the original file which survives the process. Should we advise users to print the protected file to paper and then scan the paper to get to the new document file? Actually, that's what we had to do before PDF printer apps.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, PHK

I think you are making a bigger situation out of this than it needs to be. The simple fact is, security in the document says "do not edit this file", and we cannot recommend that you go about finding way around it to edit that file. You are certainly free to do so, and there are some ways, as discussed in this thread, but in an official capacity we cannot suggest these courses of action.

Unrelated users on the other hand certainly can provide those options, I was merely expressing the dangers that come with that workaround. Beyond the security aspects, my reasons for warning against using this method is purely from a document stability perspective. It is never a positive event when you move on to working with a new "version" of a file and find out a few weeks down the road that one critical part of it is not presented properly, or cannot be edited, and needs another workaround to resolve.

Kind regards,

[PHK]

I have no idea what you mean by "bigger situation" but I apologize for doing whatever that is.

... Beyond the security aspects, my reasons for warning against using this method is purely from a document stability perspective...

The received and locked document's stability is implicitly secured by the original author's security settings and in no way is compromised. PDF-printing has no impact on the original document. Or so it seems to me. I am happy to leave that source document alone and secure although I see no reason to save it once I have extracted the page images that I want.

What printing does is to allow the user to go beyond just viewing the original document as produced to creating a new document that I, as an independent user, can incorporate some features of the original document into a new, and perhaps more useful to me, document. PDF-printing page images is obviously better than using the Snapshot Tool for multipage files but is a limited alternative.

When I get a locked PDF file of a monthly statement from my broker, all I am interested in are the page images. If I do a PDF-print, I can then take those page images and create a whole new document such as a single-sheet PDF of page images for all the statements of, say, an entire year which I can assure you is a great deal easier to deal with than hundreds of legacy letter-sized pages of an unmolested locked PDF file.

I am the end user, or viewer, of this new document. But even if I weren't, there is no way this new document could be confused with the original locked document. And the only way I can see to get from one to the other is to PDF-print. A big single sheet of multiple page images, yes, but not a big situation.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Phil,

I tend to agree myself. The original author allows printing then if others choose to print that to, as you say, a new document, I would think is acceptable by the author, else they would prevent printing.

image.png

It's a "grey area" (pun fully intended) and Daniel is doing what he must to ensure we as a company are not promoting mechanisms to bypass document security. We take the original author's document security very seriously. But aside from that, we always say printing PDF to PDF is a bad idea, partly because of respect for author intention but also because it strips so much from the document.

When you send something to the Windows Print subsystem it strips from the print job anything that is not relevant to paper, so links, etc, anything dynamic typically gets "lost".

So yes, we always strongly recommend other approaches than "reprinting" a PDF, but ultimately at the end of the day this is your choice, and I do tend to agree that if the authors allow printing then you may print it to a new document.

That's essentially my opinion, it's not a legal advice that's for sure!

[PHK]

... it's not a legal advice that's for sure!

Let's never go THERE!

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]